Till Her Last Breath
by MerriDowell
Summary: Once upon a time, it wasn't just Elena who'd thought Damon was worth saving. But Damon Salvatore lives in the real world, where vampires burn in the sun, and happily ever after doesn't exist.
1. Prologue

Prologue:

Once upon a time, long after Katherine had left his life, and before Elena stepped in, there was another young girl that held Damon to this world.

She's the reason he has a hard time believing Elena thinks he can be saved, even though he so very much wants to.

She's the reason he drinks human blood, embracing his vampirism, instead of living the way Stefan does. Damon knows that he doesn't have the luxury of letting his guard down. Soon, Stefan will see that too, even if he ends up learning the hard way, like Damon did.

She's the reason for his cynicism, his sarcasm, and his complete disregard for human life.

She's his reason for everything.

Elena once told Stefan, that heartbreak over Katherine might be good for him. That maybe it would remind him that he actually had a heart. Elena doesn't know. She doesn't know that he's reminded of the heart he refuses to acknowledge every day.

Because every day when he gets up in the morning, and watches the sun rise, he knows she's no longer there to see it with him. And that hurts more than being shot in the heart with bullets filled with vervain.

Damon didn't know that he could care so much. He didn't know that one little girl could get under his skin as thoroughly as she did. He didn't know that he could love anyone as much as he loved her. Maybe he even loved her more than Katherine.

Fifteen years to a vampire is nothing. A blip of a second really. But with her, fifteen years seemed both like forever, and not nearly long enough.

Damon never wanted anything, in life or death, besides Katherine. But she showed him a whole slew of possibilities, and suddenly, Damon found himself wanting more. He wanted a future with her in it. He wanted to show her the world. He wanted her to fall in love, get married and have a whole pack of kids. He wanted to watch her have every experience that he never got to have...and then some.

Apparently that was too much to ask.

Damon never fully believed in the 'happily ever after' that usually followed 'once upon a time'. But she did. With her bright eyes, warm smile and unending optimism, she encouraged Damon to believe too. And little by little, he did. With her, anything seemed possible. Even that so-called fairy tale ending, with princesses locked in towers, and white knights riding in to save the day.

Looking back, he knows he should have known better. He should have walked away from the very beginning. He should have walked away before she'd become old enough to figure out what he was.

His whole life is filled with 'should haves'.

But he was selfish, and it cost him his world.

Sometimes though, when he's too drunk to hide from himself anymore, he knows he can't regret the short time he knew her. And he knows that, even though it would kill her, he wouldn't change anything. He knows he wouldn't be able to walk away, if given the chance to do it again.

And that's how he knows she was wrong about him.

He wants her to be right. He wants to be a good person, and to make her proud. Damon knows she would be so disappointed, seeing the things he's done since her. And some how, he can't bring himself to care. He's a vampire. There's no use fighting against it. It never did her any good. Wanting and wishing never do anyone any good.

She's the reason Damon lives in the real world now, where vampires burn in the sun, and human girls die horrible, painful deaths because they're waiting for their hero to rescue them.

She's the reason he knows 'happily ever after' doesn't follow 'once upon a time'.

She's the reason for everything he's become, and everything he knows he's going to be.

She's the reason he's officially declared war on the world.

And he's going to make it burn.

**Author's Note: Okay, I know that I'm supposed to be working on 'Things We Lost in the Fire', and I am, I promise. I just watched the whole series of Vampire Diaries, totally fell in love with Damon, and started wondering about why he is the way he is. And then Stefan mentioned they hadn't seen each other in fifteen years, and he looked so sad when he said Elena was his only friend and...the stupid plot bunny bit down so hard it left teeth marks. Sigh. So this is my take on what happened in those fifteen years that he's unaccounted for, and the reason he's hell bent on being all 'diabolical'. **

**Hope you stick around for the ride. :)**


	2. December, 1994

Chapter One:_ December, 1994_

Damon Salvatore walked into the large shopping center, intent on only one thing: Finding Carter and beating the crap out of him.

Like the creature of the night he was, Damon stalked through the crowds of people, not noticing for once the many heartbeats around him. After he destroyed the threat to his brother, he'd think about it. But until then...

Damon was so focused on navigating the large crowds of people, cursing Carter and his idea to use the hundreds of humans as shields, that he didn't notice the small human until he almost stepped on her.

He looked down in surprise. Children, especially young children, tended to avoid him at all costs. It was almost as if they could sense what he really was; that he was dangerous. In a century, he'd never had one approach him voluntarily before.

Which is why he was so shocked when a small, girl, with hair so dark it was almost brown, and big green eyes stood in front of him. She couldn't have been more than four, and looked up at him with a trembling lip.

The two of them stared at each other for a few moments, before Damon finally sighed and crouched down to her level. He didn't know why. He'd never had any interaction with children, in life or death, and it felt strange to suddenly shift from 'stalk and kill' to 'gentle stranger' mode.

"Hi." he said, glancing around at the large group of people. No one seemed to notice the grown man talking to the small child. Didn't that cause some kind of commotion with humans? Wasn't it in their DNA to protect their offspring?

"Hi." the little girl whispered. Without Damon's enhanced hearing, he probably wouldn't have heard her.

Damon sighed. What the hell was he doing? "What's your name?"

The little girl's green eyes blinked slowly at him. "Sophie Marie Davies." She stumbled over some of the letters, but Damon understood.

"Hi, Sophie Marie Davies." he said, earning a soft smile from her. He felt himself being drawn towards her, and he squashed down that feeling, turning off his emotions as effortlessly as flipping a switch. He didn't have the time or energy to start caring about some random kid, in some random mall, in a random town in Kansas. "I'm Damon. Where are your parents?"

Her smile fell, and Damon had the sudden urge to pick her up and hold her close, protecting her from the world. "I lost them." she said softly, looking down at her feet. When she looked back up at him, she had tears in her eyes, and the sadness in them just about cut to the bone. "Will you help me find them?"

Before Damon even thought about what he was doing, he nodded, and held out his hand, letting Sophie put her tiny, delicate hand in his large calloused one. She smiled up at him, a blindingly bright smile that Damon just wanted to melt into. Damon pulled her close and then picked her up, inhaling her scent, and then spreading out his senses, trying to match the particular fragrance. She should smell like her parents.

Now all he had to do, was return the child to her folks, destroy Carter, and then he could go back to his motel, find a nice young girl to share his bed...and to snack on, and he could call it a night.

When Damon picked her up, he was again surprised when she put her arms around his neck and laid her head down on his shoulder. Her breathing evened out, and after craning his neck, Damon saw she'd fallen asleep.

"Just freakin' great." he muttered to himself, scanning the crowds. Taking a deep breath of the air, he ignored the scent of the sleeping child in his arms, and focused on finding a close match.

Damon didn't have to look far, as a scent he knew as fear and panic met his nose, mixed with the sweet smell of the young girl in his arms. Normally he knew that scent because of humans being afraid of him. This time, he was willing to bet it was because of Sophie. He headed to the center of the shopping center, and after turning a corner, saw a young woman and a man in their early twenties, standing and talking to a security guard. Above the roar of all the other humans, he could hear them describing Sophie, completely panicked. They'd only turned around for a second...

Irrationally, Damon felt angry at these two humans. How could they just let an obviously defenseless little girl just wander off. There were things in the world that could hurt her: cars, pedophiles...vampires.

Taking an un-needed deep breath, and again stamping down on his emotions, Damon walked forward. They didn't even turn to look at him until he cleared his throat and tapped the man on the shoulder.

"Oh!" the woman said, reaching for Sophie. "Thank God!" she cried burying her face in her daughter's hair. Damon could see the resemblance, noting her dark hair. When the man turned to him, he saw Sophie had his eyes, although Sophie's were brighter.

Damon forced a smile. He wasn't used to talking to people when he wasn't trying to eat them, and the loss of Sophie's warm weight in his arms suddenly made him feel cold. He resisted the urge to reach out and take her back from her mother and disappear into the crowd."Hi. Found this little one wandering around by herself. I was bringing her to security when I noticed you two."

The man looked at his daughter's sleeping form, and then back at Damon, shock and surprise clouding his features. "She let you carry her?"

"She walked right up to me." Damon said. "I'm surprised too. Children tend to avoid me at all costs."

The man raised an eyebrow, and the woman stepped forward, holding out her hand. "I'm Jennifer Davies. This is my husband Mike. And you've apparently met Sophie."

"Damon Salvatore." Damon said, taking the offered hand. He then shoved his hands in his pockets. "That's quite a sweet girl you've got there."

Jennifer smiled. "That she is. But normally she's so shy. She never speaks to strangers, and barely ever leaves our side. We've never had to worry about her wandering off alone before."

"Three year olds are extremely curious, Jen." Mike said. "She probably found something interesting and turned to follow it, not even realizing she was walking away from us."

Damon nodded his agreement. He needed to get away from these people. "Well, I'm glad I could help. You three have a nice evening."

Damon started to walk away, forcing his thoughts back to eviscerating Carter, when the woman spoke up. "Wait. Isn't there any way we can repay you for bringing Sophie back to us?"

Damon turned to look at her incredulously. Who _were_ these people? Most parents didn't like their children fraternizing with strangers, especially male strangers, and now, these people not only were _not _freaking out at him bringing their child back from who knew where, but were trying to _thank _him?

"Nah. Just helping her find her parents." Damon said, smiling at them, letting a hint of his fangs show, hoping maybe they'd take the hint and realize he was dangerous. No, really, he was. He could snap their necks right there before they even realized it and walk off with Sophie, never to be seen again.

If the sight of his fangs bothered them, they didn't show it. Mike held out his hand, and Damon shook it. "Well, Mr. Salvatore, thank you for your help. I don't know what we would have done if we'd lost her. She's the light of our life, you know."

Damon nodded, gave Jennifer a smile, and then turned to walk away, when a soft cry met his ears. He turned around to see Sophie struggling to get down from her mother's arms. Jennifer placed her on the ground, and the three adults watched in surprise as Sophie launched herself at Damon.

Damon automatically caught her in his arms, and she immediately wrapped her arms around his neck again. Damon looked at her parents helplessly.

Jennifer obviously thought it was cute. Mike just looked surprised at Sophie's attachment to the strange man.

"Oh!" Jennifer cooed. "That's amazing. Honestly, Mr. Salvatore, Sophie really doesn't like anyone. She's never latched on to someone so strongly before."

Damon nodded uncomfortably, and then looked back at the girl in his arms. "Sophie, I really have to give you back to your mom now."

Sophie's only response was a muffled 'no' and a tightening of her arms around his neck. Damon looked at her parents. He was almost ready to compel them to take their daughter and walk away, but he wanted to save his strength for disemboweling Carter.

Jennifer looked from Mike to Damon, and then at Sophie, and smiled. "Mr. Salvatore, if you don't have plans on Thursday, you should join us for dinner. Sophie apparently adores you. I know she'd love it if you came."

Damon blinked at her. Seriously? She was inviting him to Christmas dinner? The strange man who showed up with their child? He could have been doing God knows what to her, and she was inviting him to her _house_?

"I wouldn't want to impose..." Damon started, attempting to gently de-tangle Sophie's fingers from his jacket collar.

"You wouldn't be imposing." Mike said, helping Damon remove Sophie from her death grip on him. She immediately started struggling to get away from her father, reaching for Damon. Mike thankfully held on tight to the girl. "We just moved here and would love the company."

Damon looked from Jennifer and Mike to Sophie, and sighed. What the hell had he gotten himself into?

"Sophie." Damon said, crouching down to look at Sophie. She got lose from her father, and solemnly walked up to him, looking him square in the eye. "I want you to go with your mom and dad, but I will see you Thursday night, okay?"

He didn't compel her, just stated the facts, and deep inside as he knew he was lying. Sophie looked at him with a gaze so intense, Damon felt like she was looking through him, eyes far to understanding for a three year old. Finally she nodded, and smiled at him. She reached up gave him a quick hug and then walked back to her parents, standing calmly at their side.

After exchanging information, and promising he would be there for dinner, even as he already knew he wouldn't be going, he walked away from the small family. He sighed. He knew he couldn't have friendships or relationships with humans with his life. Eventually they were going to notice he wasn't aging. Eventually one or more of his enemies would attempt to hurt them.

Damon knew he couldn't protect them. Even though, all he wanted to do was melt into Sophie's smile.

He'd heard of vampires forming attachments to humans before. It supposedly kept them connected to their humanity, and reminded them of the humans they used to be. Damon had never felt the urge to latch on to a human before. They were there for his amusement, nothing more.

Then why, he thought to himself, do I want to know more about Sophie?

"Aww." the slick, nasally voice of Carter James rolled over him, shocking him out of his thoughts. He hadn't even heard him walk up, another reason he couldn't let himself care. I could get him killed, and then no one would be around to protect Stefan's pansy ass. "She's cute. Wonder if she tastes as good as she looks."

Damon didn't even think twice, just turned and plowed his fist into Carter's face. A few people stopped to look as Carter staggered backwards, blood gushing from his nose. He grinned sadistically at him.

"Wow. Did I hit a nerve?" He wiped the blood away and then melted into the crowd, disappearing from sight.

Damon followed swiftly, not wanting to lose him. He wasn't just threatening Stefan now. He was threatening Sophie. And with God as his witness, Carter wasn't going to lay a finger on that little girl.

Carter darted out one of the side doors, and Damon followed him, turning into a small alleyway just behind the shopping center. Damon threw himself at Carter, throwing him into the brick wall.

Carter just laughed, even as Damon wrapped a hand around his throat. "All worked up over one little human." he mocked. "Maybe I'll turn her. Feed her my blood and snap that tiny little neck of hers like a twig."

Damon growled and pushed Carter so hard into the wall that it started to creak in protest, some of the brick crumbling into powder with the force of Damon's anger.

"Then you could have her forever." Carter laughed, obviously enjoying Damon's distress. He stopped to choke however, when Damon tightened his grip.

"You leave the human out of this." Damon snarled, baring his teeth show. "Now, who put the contract out on my brother?"

"Santa Clause." Carter grit out. "Little Stefan made the naughty list this year."

Damon punched him again, hard enough that Carter's eye started swelling immediately and then knocked him into the wall, deepening the dent. "Try again."

Carter spit blood into Damon's face, and as Damon flinched away from it, pushed him away. The two vampires glared at each other, bodies tight with tension. "You know just as well as I do, I tell you who's got the contract, I'm dead."

"You don't tell me who's got the contract, _I'll_ kill you." Damon spat out.

"You don't scare me." Carter smirked.

Before Carter could even blink, Damon had slipped out a wooden stake from his jacket sleeve, and had pushed it up between his ribs, into his heart. "I _should_ scare you." He whispered to the dying vampire. He let Carter sink to the ground, and then turned and walked away.

His buddies would find him. And word would be out. In Damon's experience, killing the messenger generally sent a very clear message.

No one messed with Damon's little brother.

And no one threatened Damon's human.

O~O~O

Thursday night found Damon standing in the snow, outside a small house with all the lights on, Christmas music playing softly inside. He could hear a little girl's giggling from inside, and against his better judgment, was actually going to have dinner with this family.

It was Sophie.

He couldn't get her out of his head. Her blinding smile, soft hair and sparkling eyes were etched into his brain, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get her scent off his clothes. It was maddening.

Damon hadn't let himself care about anyone or anything, aside from Stefan, in years. Since the love of his life...and un-dead life, had been killed almost a century ago. Caring only led to being hurt.

Damon had never good with pain.

Running his fingers agitatedly through his hair, he stomped up to the front porch, muttering to himself how this was a bad idea, and he should turn away.

All thoughts of leaving left his head, when the door opened immediately after his first knock, and Sophie was on the other side of the door.

"Hi!" She beamed at him.

Damon could help smiling at her, her obvious glee infectious. He knelt down to her level. "Hello, Sophie. How are you?"

"Good." She chirped, just as Jennifer walked around the corner.

"Sophie, did you invite our guest inside?" she asked, hands on her hips, a mock frown on her face.

Sophie nodded seriously, and then looked at Damon. "Please come inside." she said, focusing on enunciating each word, making sure she got them right.

Damon felt the barrier holding him from the happy little household dissolve, as if it had never been there. He smiled and stepped inside.

The inside of the house was something out of a Christmas special on TV. Colorful stockings hung in front of a fire place next to a large decorated tree, completely decked out in Christmas cheer. Even Sophie and Jennifer looked like people out a Christmas catalog, hair pinned back, wearing red and green dresses to mark the occasion.

"Welcome, Mr. Salvatore." Jennifer said, reaching for his jacket.

"Damon, please." he said, handing her his jacket and the bottle of wine he'd picked up on the way there.

"Damon." Jennifer repeated, taking the wine from him as Mike came down the stairs. Damon resisted the urge to laugh at his dorky sweater, and instead focussed on Sophie, who had stepped so close to Damon she was touching his leg.

"Hey, Damon. Glad you could make it." Mike said, shaking Damon's hand. He looked down at Sophie and rolled his eyes. "She's been asking about you all week. Wondering if you were coming over or not."

Damon managed a smile for Mike. He still wasn't comfortable around the family, and there was something off about Jennifer and Mike's eyes he couldn't place. Something familiar he felt he should know... "I couldn't refuse a dinner invite from such a pretty little girl." he said, looking down at Sophie, who smiled again, clinging to his pants leg.

Mike smiled and led the way to the dining room, where Jennifer was finishing setting out food.

"I hope you don't mind." She said, as she set out another plate. "I invited our new neighbor as well."

Damon shrugged. "It's your dinner party." He found a chair to sit on, and Sophie immediately climbed into his lap. Damon closed his eyes and inhaled her scent like a drowning man allowed up for air. He could have sworn that it almost made his long dead heart stop beating again.

He was brought out of his contemplations of why she was affecting him so much, when a familiar scent hit his nose, mixing with the smell of Sophie. It was a scent Damon knew all too well.

Vampire.

Damon looked up as Jennifer walked in, a smile plastered to her face, and Damon cursed inwardly at his stupidity. He tightened his grip on Sophie as a young woman followed Jennifer into the room.

"Damon this is Jasmine." Jennifer said, gesturing to the woman dressed in a black dress with black shoes, long dark hair and brown eyes shining in the dim lighting. "She just moved in next door. And Jasmine, that is my daughter, Sophie."

Jasmine smiled, baring her teeth at Damon. "Hello Damon. Hello Sophie. It's so nice to finally meet you."

Damon nodded stiffly. Looking quickly at Jennifer and Mike, he noticed the glazed look to their eyes, and with the vampire standing in their dining room, noted the effects of compulsion.

When Jasmine turned her attention to Sophie, she flinched back into Damon.

"Hi Sophie," Jasmine said, holding out her hand. When Sophie started to tremble slightly in fear, Damon just glared, and growled softly at Jasmine in turn.

"Sophie doesn't like strangers." Damon said, defending his young friend, as her parents were too far gone in the compulsion to do anything to defend her.

"And yet she's quite taken with you." Jasmine said knowingly.

Damon just glared. He didn't have a response to that. He didn't know why Sophie was so interested in him, and he still couldn't explain his interest in her.

Jasmine turned to Jennifer and Mike. "Why don't we eat?" she said, obviously using her compulsion on them. The young couple scrambled to comply, going to the kitchen to bring in the plates of food, leaving Sophie with the two vampires staring each other down.

While everyone passed food around, Damon kept Sophie on his lap. Not that she had made a move to go around the table and sit at the only empty seat anyway. It was right next to Jasmine, and every time Jasmine directed her attention at the small girl, she started shaking in fear and would cuddle closer to Damon.

Damon was more concerned as to what Jasmine wanted, and what she was doing with this small family. According to Jennifer, she'd just moved in the day before, and Jennifer had decided to invite her to dinner, as a welcome to the neighborhood.

Welcome to the neighborhood my ass, Damon thought handing another roll to Sophie.

As they were all eating dessert, Sophie carefully watching Jasmine as she ate her ice cream, Jasmine said, "Damon, Mike said your last name was Salvatore."

"Yes ma'am." he said, keeping a good grip on Sophie, still watching Jasmine suspiciously.

"I knew a young man named Salvatore once. He used to live in Virginia." At Damon's raised eyebrow, she smiled, and said, "His name is Stefan Salvatore."

Damon stood up then, placing Sophie in the chair. "Outside. Now." His tone offered no room for argument.

Damon followed Jasmine outside, while Jennifer and Mike began to clean up the mess from dinner. Sophie looked after Damon in fear. He nodded to her, and then shut the door, planting himself in front of it.

One more barrier between the small family and Jasmine.

"You're the one with the contract out on my brother." he said, jumping right into the matter at hand.

Jasmine shrugged and smiled at him, an arrogant smile that Damon longed to rip from her face. "I heard you were looking for me. And of course when Carter didn't return home..." She let that sentence drift off.

"Yeah. And now I've found you. So here's the terms. You take the contract off my brother's head, leave the Davies family alone, and I won't kill you."

Before Damon could even begin to think about defending himself, he was pushed up against the door, a manicured hand around his throat.

Jasmine had let her true face come through, and was snarling at him. "Listen here, _little boy_. I am older than you, and stronger than you. It wouldn't take much to march right in and destroy your little pets right now, you powerless to do anything. You are in no position to be demanding anything. The only reason you are still alive right now, is I think you and I can come to some sort of mutual agreement, without any more needless deaths."

Jasmine took her hand off his throat and took one step back. Damon snarled at her refraining from rubbing his neck and showing any kind of weakness or discomfort. "What kind of agreement?" he asked.

"I believe when you were human, you knew a young woman. Her name was Katherine Pierce."

Damon flinched. "And if I did?"

"Then if you did, then you know that she was killed in 1864."

"Yeah. And?"

Jasmine smiled, "And then you might be interested in bringing her back."

Damon started laughing at that. "Were you feeding off drug addicts recently? You can't bring someone back from the dead. That's way too supernatural, even for us."

"Katherine isn't dead." Jasmine said, ignoring Damon's outburst. "Her little witch friend, Elena or Elizabeth..."

"Emily." Damon muttered.

"...cast a spell." Jasmine continued, as if Damon hadn't spoken a word. "She imprisoned all the vampires of Mystic Falls in a tomb underneath the church. Keeping them all safe, until someone can open that tomb."

Damon was interested now. "Okay. Say I believe you. How do we get this tomb open?"

Jasmine started to pace the front porch. Damon watched her intently. "Fifteen years from now, a comet will pass over Mystic Falls. That comet will create enough magical energy to open that tomb. If someone can find a witch to call on that energy, the spell on the tomb can be broken, the door can be opened, and vampires can rise and take over Mystic Falls once again."

Damon leaned against the door. Bringing Katherine back was something he'd only ever dreamed of. "Why are you telling me this?" he finally asked.

Jasmine shrugged. "You were in love with Katherine once. And her and I had plans for Mystic Falls and the surrounding towns. I think you might be the only other vampire with the motivation to actually succeed."

Damon looked at her suspiciously. "What kind of plans?"

"Now that is none of your business." Jasmine said, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

Damon sighed, and looked around. "Okay. Name your terms."

Jasmine hitched a shoulder. "It's simple. In fifteen years, you find a way to pull Katherine, and all the other vampires from that tomb, and stop killing my...employees. In exchange, your brother, and your little human pets in there are off limits to all vampires."

"You can guarantee their safety?" Damon asked skeptically. "And why should I believe you?"

Jasmine bared her teeth. "As I said, I am much older than you Damon. I do whatever I want. And those who serve me know better than to cross my wrath. You're pets and family will remain safe as long as you full fill your end of the bargain."

Damon glanced at her, and then let his gaze shift to the door at his back. After a moment, her turned to her, and held out his hand.

"We have a deal."

Jasmine shook, obviously delighted by the turn of events. "Now, allow me to erase their memories, and we can be on our way."

Damon led the way inside, keeping a close eye on Jasmine, and immediately picked up Sophie. He held her close as Jasmine proceeded to erase all memories of both vampires from the Jennifer and Mike's mind, and then sent them to bed. He actually agreed with erasing the Davies' memories. They didn't need to remember their 'neighbor', and they certainly didn't need to remember him.

And then she turned to Sophie.

"Now, child. Look at me." she said, eyes sparkling with malice.

"No." Damon said, covering her eyes and turning her head into his shoulder. "You will not compel her."

Jasmine only raised one perfectly manicured eyebrow. "Suit yourself."

Jasmine walked to the front door, and just before she stepped out onto the porch, turned to face Damon. "I hope you understand, that if you fail to hold up your end of the bargain, I will personally destroy everyone that you care about. Starting with her."

Damon nodded, clutching Sophie tightly, and watched Jasmine walk out the door and into the night.

As soon as Damon was sure Jasmine was gone, Damon took the yawning child in his arms, upstairs to her room and tucked her into bed. He smiled at the typical little girl's room, decked out in shades of pink, butterfly stencils adorning the walls.

When she was settled, Damon reached into his pocket and pulled out a shiny, gold locket, filled with vervain.

"Pretty." Sophie said, reaching for it. Damon smiled and latched it around her neck.

"Promise me you won't take it off, Soph." he said, ruffling her hair. "Not ever."

Sophie nodded. "Promise." Her eyes showed an intelligence far beyond her years.

Damon nodded, kissed her on the top of the head, and then laid her down, tucking the covers in around her tiny, fragile body. Almost immediately her breathes evened out into sleep, a tiny hand clutching the necklace tight.

Damon watched her for one more moment, letting himself memorize the young girl he was determined never to see again, and then quickly left the room, climbing out the window and dropping softly to his feet in the fresh snow. He stalked off into the night, melting almost effortlessly into the darkness.

He had work to do.

**Author's Note: Drop me a line and let me know what you think. I'll have the next chapter up soon...assuming it cooperates with me and comes out of my head in a timely manner. :)**


	3. March, 1995

Chapter Two: _March, 1995_

Damon cursed his stupidity...and lack of willpower, as he once again stood outside the Davies' family home in Lawrence, Kansas.

The house itself didn't look any different than it had three months ago, and at eleven o'clock at night, all the lights, except the living room were off. Listening carefully, Damon could hear the two separate heart beats, both slow, even and calm.

Even though the house didn't _look_ different, Damon could feel an undercurrent of magical energy thrumming around the property, focused mostly on the house. It wasn't anything that could keep him away, but there was a definite 'back off' sign, flashing loud and clear to those who knew what to look for. When he started wandering quietly around the house, he saw the reason why.

Ancient protection symbols, symbols that Damon had only seen at the most powerful of vampires' nests, were placed strategically and discreetly around the home, some carved into small tree branches, one underneath the porch, and one just outside Sophie's bedroom window.

He growled in annoyance and frustration. This meant he'd have to thank Jasmine for putting forth the effort in keeping up her end of the bargain. Granted, those symbols didn't do a whole lot for vampires, but other things would have a hard time getting in.

Damon wasn't naive enough to believe he was the only supernatural entity in Lawrence.

As he finished another circle around the house, he noticed it wasn't Jennifer or Mike in the living room watching TV, but it was a young girl, close to sixteen or seventeen. She had her feet curled up underneath her and a book on her lap. Her dirty blonde hair fell over her face, keeping Damon from seeing anything else about her.

Damon turned away from the door, his intention to scale up the wall of the house to Sophie's bedroom, and go in and see the little girl. That was all. He just wanted to make sure she was okay. Protection symbols and promises aside, Damon didn't trust Jasmine and her minions not to hurt her, just to prove a point. They _were _vampires after all.

As he walked away from the front window, he heard movement, slight and quiet. Damon turned around as the young girl from the couch suddenly looked up and out the window. She frowned slightly, and set down a calculator and a notebook, giving Damon a glimpse of what she'd been working on: algebra. Damon winced in sympathy for her as she got up and walked softly to the window. Her steps were quiet, so quiet they were almost silent, and Damon had to strain to hear them. Still, as he flattened himself in the shadows, he didn't count her as anything other than a girl. A pretty girl, he noted, when he caught a glimpse of her bright green eyes, almost as bright as Sophie's, but still just a teenage girl. Not someone to bother with.

That was, until she opened the door, looked both ways, and muttered the word 'christo' under her breath.

Damon blinked in surprise, but stayed still and silent, out of her sight. A few moments later, she shut the door. Damon heard her lock the deadbolt, and then listened carefully as she made her way around the house. Damon followed her by ear, listening as she carefully checked each door and window, making sure nothing could get in. Damon listened as she made a quick stop at the upstairs landing, and then seemed to glide down the stairs.

"Okay, its time to stop doing homework when you start hallucinating." he heard her mutter to herself as she settled back down on the couch and pulled a book from the backpack sitting against the coffee table.

Damon watched her for a moment, and once he was sure she was good and settled for a while, slipped around the side of the house, scaled the wall, and landed on the small ledge outside Sophie's room. He carefully slid the window open, and crawled in.

The room hadn't changed in the few months he'd been gone, and Sophie was curled up under a bundle of pink and white blankets, the locket he'd given her shining against the darkness. He allowed himself a soft smile, and walked towards the bed. He sat down gingerly on the edge, doing his best not to wake her up.

Sophie's hair had gotten longer, and it fell over her face as she slept, her small breaths blowing it away from her face, and then sucking it right back to stick to her lips. Damon indulged himself, against his better judgement, and gently brushed it away from her face. He let his fingers run along her scalp, as careful as if she were made of glass.

Sophie's green eyes blinked open lazily at the touch and Damon froze, as she yawned, and then looked at him steadily. There was no way she'd remember the random stranger she'd met a few months ago. She was only three. Children didn't have that kind of memory.

Damon braced himself for the screaming.

Instead, Sophie's eyes widened, and she pushed herself off the bed. In seconds, she had launched herself at Damon.

"Damon!" she cried out, wrapping her arms around his neck. Damon let his own arms snake around to hold her close, allowing himself to inhale her scent.

Sophie pulled back to sit quietly on her bed, and smiled blindingly at Damon. "I missed you." she said cheerfully.

Damon smiled slightly at the child. He couldn't understand why she looked at him that way, with a smile and eyes bright as the sun, as if he were the center of her own little universe. He wasn't a good man...vampire. He didn't deserve to have something so pure and innocent look at him the way she did.

"Hi, Sophie." Damon said, letting his fingers drift through her hair. He decided to go for honesty. "I missed you too."

If possible, Sophie smiled even wider. "You were gone for so long." She said. Then, "Guess what? I'm this many now." She held up four fingers.

Damon felt a wave of guilt wash over him at missing her birthday. "Wow, Sophie. You're getting to be such a big girl."

Sophie smiled again. "Yup! Oh! And I get to go to dancing school now! My teacher is also my babysitter! Mommy and Daddy went to dinner, and she stayed with me. We played Candyland! And made s'mores!"

"That's great, Sophie." Damon said, with feigned interest. Honestly, he couldn't care less what she'd done with her babysitter, he just enjoyed listening to her talk. Her innocence seemed to blanket him with warmth. It'd been so long since he'd felt that warmth.

"You'll be nice to her, right?" Sophie asked, a slight frown on her face. "Like how nice you are with me?"

"Of course." Damon said. As the words left his mouth, he knew he would promise her the world, if that was what it took to make her smile. That blindingly, innocent smile that she gifts him with.

Movement on the stairs forced Damon to quickly untangle himself from the four-year-old, and leap for the closet. Sophie looked at him funny, and then turned a bright smile to the teenage girl standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Sophie." she said. "What'cha doing up kiddo?"

Sophie shrugged. "Nofin'."

"Nothing huh?" the girl asked, casting suspicious eyes around the room. She frowned at the open window. "It sounded like you were talking to someone."

"To Damon." Sophie said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Damon groaned quietly in frustration.

"To Damon, huh?" she asked, going over to the window and shutting it. She looked back and forth, out the side, and then turned around to look at Sophie. He could hear the smile in her voice as she said, "I thought I said that you and Damon had to sleep."

Damon frowned slightly, and counted to ten before he leaned forward slightly to look out the crack between the door and the wall. The girl was sitting on the edge of Sophie's bed, holding a stuffed brown bear in her hands.

Sophie reached for the bear. "Damon woke me up." she said. "But he just wanted to say 'hi'."

The girl shook her head, obviously amused. "Well now, Damon is saying 'good night'." She tapped the bear's nose against Sophie's, and then settled both bear and girl back under the covers. Sophie leaned down against the pillows and closed her eyes.

The girl watched for a moment, cast one more suspicious glance around the room, and then shut the door quietly behind her.

Damon came out from his hiding place, and watched Sophie for a moment longer, before slipping out the window and sliding down the side of the house. and then slipped down the side out of the house.

About an hour later, Mike and Jennifer came home, laughing and smiling. The teenage girl left not long after, and got in the beat up and rusted Chevy that had been parked on the street. She drove off into the night, and Damon made sure to memorize her license plate number, before slinking off into the darkness.

O~O~O

Damon walked up to Jasmine's front door early the next morning. Granted, it wasn't his smartest move, but he's done all kinds of stupid things since the sun came up, and it wasn't even noon yet: following Sophie to school and then eavesdropping when her mom was trying to figure out how to get her to dance class later that evening, 'cause Mike had to work late.

The door opened almost immediately, a blond haired vampire standing just outside of the sun's rays, eying him with distaste.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Salvatore?" the scorn practically dripped from her lips.

"I want to talk to Jasmine."

She stared at him for a moment, and then walked back inside. Damon waited impatiently on the porch, wanting to bang on the door. He resisted the urge. Jasmine put in defenses to help keep Sophie safe. Damon had checked the only dance studio in the small town, her pre-school, and her mom's car. As much as it killed a little bit of the soul he's wasn't sure he even had anymore, it's Sophie. He'd apologize to Stefan, sincerely, if that was what it took to keep her safe, guarded and happy.

The blonde vampire returned, after a long moment, a graying, middle aged woman at her side. The woman's eyes were glazed, and a permanent smile was etched onto her face.

"Mrs. Robins, this is Damon. Please invite him inside."

The woman tilted her head, and Damon could see the bite marks marking up her shoulder and along her neck. She smiled. "Hello, Damon. Please. Come inside."

Damon smiled politely, and stepped over the threshold. The blond ignored the woman and turned towards the stairwell. Damon followed, up the stairs and into a lavish office at the top of the landing.

Jasmine was sitting with her back to the door, at a large wooden desk, looking the same as she had the few months before when he'd encountered her at the Davies' house. Her long dark hair fell down her back, and she was wearing a tight, black dress.

"Damon." She said, not turning around. "What do I owe this pleasure?"

Damon shuffled his feet and then shoved his hands deep in his pants pockets. He swallowed his pride, reminding himself that it was for Sophie, held his head up, and said, "I just wanted to thank you, for taking measure to keep Sophie safe. I...appreciate it."

Jasmine turned to look at him then, cocking one perfectly manicured eyebrow. "Excuse me?" She looked genuinely confused.

Damon tilted his head at her. "The protection symbols around her house and bedroom." _And other places._

Jasmine shrugged. "It wasn't me."

Damon narrowed his eyes at her. "You said you'd protect her."

Jasmine sighed. "No. I said myself and the vampires under my care wouldn't hurt her. Aside from my order she wasn't to be touched, I have not even given a second thought to your little pet. She is your responsibility to protect. Not mine. "

Damon nodded. "My mistake." He had a new suspicion as to who it was, and wanted to look into it. He nodded to Jasmine, who just flicked her hand at him and turned back to her desk. Damon's pride prickled at being so obviously dismissed, but he kept his mouth shut, not willing to antagonize the few vampires he didn't have to worry about eating Sophie just yet.

Maybe later.

Ignoring the other vampires, Damon headed out into the sunlight.

O~O~O

By that evening, Damon had tracked down Sophie's babysitter from the night before.

Deanna Winchester: 16 years old.

Damon watched the supposedly normal girl from across the street. She was sitting at a coffee shop, apparently doing homework, sipping her coffee and tapping her pen against her notebook. Damon could hear the rhythm underneath the tapping.

Deanna brushed her hair away from her face, and began tapping her foot in sync with her pen. Nothing about her said she wasn't a normal teenage girl. Nothing said she wasn't exactly what she seemed to be.

Except last night she'd muttered 'christo' into the darkness. That was protection against demons. Normal girls didn't know about demons. And she was likely the culprit who'd placed the protection symbols around the Davies' home...and the elementary school...and the local high school...and the dance studio...and a dozen other places he'd noticed around the small town while tracking down the young girl that evening. And those were symbols that Damon had only seen a time or two, and not something a sixteen-year-old girl should know just off the top of her head.

Damon quickly made up his mind, and stalked across the street. He walked into the coffee shop, pulled out the chair in front of her, and sat down as if he belonged there.

Deanna raised an eyebrow at him, and then set her pen down. She crossed her arms defensively, and leaned against her chair. "Can I help you?"

"Christo." He said to her, without preamble.

Deanna didn't flinch, like a demon would have, but her eyes did narrow dangerously. "Excuse me?"

Damon could see the thread of danger lurking just under her skin, and wondered if it was genetic, or if she really was as dangerous as she seemed to be. "Just checking." he said. Damon leaned forward and co-opted her coffee.

Deanna frowned at him. "You're checking to see if I'm a demon...and then you take my coffee? Who the hell are you?"

"I think the better question would be, who are you?" Damon replied.

"I asked you first." Deanna said.

Damon shrugged. "I'm Damon Salvatore."

"So?" Deanna asked.

Damon smirked. "You asked who I was. That's it. Now, your turn."

"I'm Deanna Winchester. But...I'm betting you already knew that." Deanna said, reaching over and taking her coffee back.

Damon relinquished her coffee, and then took the muffin that was sitting next to her elbow. Not that he actually wanted it, but he figured it would piss her off, and after being polite to bloodthirsty vampires he didn't even like, he was more than happy to let his attitude show through with the teenage girl who was looking at him like a dangerous bug. The almost silent frustrated huff he got from her, told him he was getting close, and Damon took perverse pleasure in annoying her. "I did know that actually." He said. "The very nice woman in the office at your school was very helpful. She told me all about you."

"All about me, huh?" Deanna asked. "Like what?" She was still looking at him smugly, showing outwardly she wasn't afraid of him. Her green eyes however showed her emotions. Wary, almost fear shone back at him.

"Like, when you were four, your mother was killed in a mysterious fire, and your dad and two brothers disappeared. Like, your neighbors took you in, and the very nice Warren family has been raising you for the last twelve years." Deanna frowned, and Damon continued. "She told me you have a 4.0 GPA, that you teach at the gymnastics center in Kansas City on weekends, and the local dance studio during the week. She told me you babysit, and her kids think you are the best thing since sliced bread. Am I missing anything?"

Deanna was staring at him with a look that made Damon want to check and make sure he wasn't on fire. "And why on Earth would she tell you any of that?"

"I can be very persuasive," Damon said, shredding her muffin into tiny bits. "But what I don't know is how or why a sixteen-year-old high school student would know what the word 'christo' means, let alone how to use it."

"I read." she said immediately, looking at him suspiciously.

"Or how said sixteen-year-old would know how to draw ancient Sumerian protection symbols."

"I don't even know what you're talking about." she said. Damon almost believed her. She was a good liar. Again, Damon wondered if it was genetic, or if took practice. "I'm just a dance teacher. A high school student, like you said."

Damon raised his own eyebrow at her. "So you weren't the one who put the symbols underneath Sophie Davies' bedroom window?"

Deanna jerked slightly. "And what were you doing under Sophie Davies' window?"

"I was in the neighborhood..." Damon shrugged. "So...you have no idea how they got there."

Deanna shook her head and flipped hair out of her face. "Nope." she said as she picked up her pen and began tapping again.

Damon nodded. "Okay. Now, see, I know you're lying. 'Cause I can smell it on you." Deanna's eyes narrowed even more.

"What kind of person can smell a lie?" Deanna asked, pausing just long enough in her tapping to fix him with another intense stare.

"The kind that's not quite a person." Damon responded. Deanna's eyes widened slightly. "What kind of dance instructor know about ancient Sumerian protection rites?"

"The kind who's been aware of what lives in the darkness since she was four." Deanna said. "So, since you're not a person, and 'christo' doesn't work on you, what does?"

Damon leaned back in the chair, Deanna's muffin crumbled into a pile of crumbs on the plate in front of him. "Well, not garlic...or crucifixes."

"So there's two things down." Deanna smirked. "Ninety-eight more possibilities."

"Oh, sweetheart," Damon laughed. "There are so many more possibilities. You have no idea the kinds of things that roam in the darkness. Things that make me look like a fluffy, kind-hearted kitten."

"And you're not?" Deanna asked. "Gee, and all I thought you were able to do was stalk people and take their coffee while pretending to be scary."

"I'm the kind of thing that nightmares are made of." Damon said, leaning forward. "You would not believe how dangerous I could be."

"_Could?"_ Deanna asked.

Damon nodded. "When it suits me. Now, for instance? I'm more just curious about the supposed dance instructor who babysits a friend of mine."

"Sophie." Deanna nodded. Damon could see when the light bulb came on for her. "I thought you were her imaginary friend."

"Believe me, princess." Damon said, "If I wasn't concerned about you threatening that family, you wouldn't have even known I was here. As it was, I told Sophie I'd be nice to you. So I'm talking to you first, before ripping your throat out."

Deanna didn't even blink at the threat. "Good to know I've got a four-year-old looking out for me."

"She likes you." Damon said.

"And I like her." Deanna replied. "I like all my students. And no, I'm not a threat. Unlike some 'not quite people' I know, I'm actually human. Now, Mr. Imaginary Friend, the question at the mercy of the court here is: Are you a threat?"

Damon stared at her for a moment, and saw complete honesty in her eyes. She might not be an average human, but she wasn't lying about caring about her students. And that apparently counted Sophie.

"No." Damon answered her. "I'm not a threat. God only knows why, but I like the kid. I'm not _ever _going to hurt her."

Deanna stared him down. "I'm not saying I'm trusting you, but I do believe you aren't going to hurt her. Sophie has that affect on people. But I'm giving you fair warning: I'm not your average high school student, and I have resources that people my age don't even dream about having. You hurt her, Mike, Jennifer, or anyone else in _my _town, and I will _end_ you. I won't think twice." She held out her hand. "Do we have an understanding?"

Damon shook her hand. "As long as you understand the same goes for you. It's nice to know I'm not the only one looking out for her, and Sophie wants me to 'be nice, but don't think for one second I won't put your head on my mantle if she ever retracts her protection."

"All right then." Deanna retracted her hand, and went back to looking at her book, history from the looks of things. She glanced up at him. "No offense, but I have paper to write on the Civil War, and if I don't get it done tonight, I won't have time to do it later. And it's worth about half my grade."

Damon shook his head, wondering at the kind of person who could talk about ending him in one breath, and her history grade in the other. He got up to walk away, but turned when Deanna said, "Next time you decide to wake Sophie up in the middle of the night, you might want to be a little bit quieter. And maybe not make it so late. She does need rest, and I can't have her yawning through dance class again."

Damon huffed under his breath, and a second later, when Deanna looked up from her book, Damon was gone.

O~O~O

It had been two weeks since Damon had threatened Deanna, and been threatened in return. He hadn't seen the girl since, except for to find the Warren's family home and dump a couple of books on the Civil War on her front step. But as he showed up at Sophie's house that night, the same busted Chevy truck that had been parked outside the first night was there again.

Damon looked in the front window, and saw Deanna, again sitting on the couch, nose stuck in a book.

Damon ignored her, and scaled the wall, like he did every night, and slipped quietly into Sophie's room. Sophie was sitting up, holding tight to her bear, ('My Damon Bear, silly!' she'd told him a few nights ago). She looked up as he dropped almost silently into her room.

"Damon!" she cried out softly to him. She jumped out of bed, and into his arms. Damon carefully tightened his grip on her as tight as he dared, and carried her back to her bed.

"Hey, Soph." Damon whispered miserably in her ear.

Sophie pulled away, and put her tiny hands on both sides of his face. "What's wrong?" she asked, whispering softly.

Damon took her hands away from his face, and studied them. Back when he was still human, his mother had purchased a tiny, porcelain doll for one of the small neighbor children. Looking at Sophie's hands, he was amazed at how tiny and delicate they were.

Just like that doll.

Damon shook his head, trying to fight through memories. He knew what he had to do, but it cut him up inside to have to do so.

"Sophie," Damon said seriously. "I want you do listen to me very carefully, okay?"

Sophie leaned back against her pillows, hugging 'Damon' close to her chest. She nodded, showing she was listening. Damon had to stop and remind himself she was only four. Sometimes, she seemed so much older than her few years.

Damon took a deep breath before speaking. "I'm not going to be able to come over anymore, kiddo. I have to go away for a while."

"But, why?" Sophie asked before she started to speak. Damon gave in to his impulses, and pulled her into his arms. She tightened her grip around his neck immediately, turning her face into the space between his shoulder and his neck. Damon let himself inhale her scent, memorizing for the long road ahead.

"I have some work to do, Soph. Work that will keep you safe. But I can't do it here. I have to go away for a little while."

"What kind of work?" Sophie asked, her voice muffled by Damon's shoulder.

"The secret kind." Damon said, stroking her hair gently. He didn't want to go, but he also knew that in order to keep up his end of the deal with Jasmine, and to keep the precious gem inside his arms safe from the things in the darkness, he had to go.

But he didn't have to leave her alone.

Damon didn't realize how long he'd been sitting there, until he glanced down at Sophie and found her asleep in his arms. He laid her down gently, ran his fingers one more time through her hair, and then walked out of her bedroom.

Deanna was still sitting on the couch, and looked up at him with mild surprise when he walked down the hallway.

"I suppose I have you to thank for my 'A' on my report." she said, reaching for her backpack.

"The books were helpful I take it?" Damon said, leaning against the door jam.

"Incredibly so." She said, holding them out to him. "So...and this actually hurts to say, thank you. I kind needed that 'A' to keep up my 4.0."

Damon shook his head. "Keep them. Someone should use them."

Deanna looked at him carefully. "Thanks. They really are fascinating."

Damon nodded, and watched her as she gently put the old, cracked books back in her backpack. She then turned to stare at him. "What's going on?"

Damon sighed, and raked his fingers through his hair. "I made a deal, about three months ago. A deal to keep Sophie safe."

Deanna frowned. "Is this something I'm going to have to be prepared for?"

"No." Damon assured the teen. "But I do have to uphold my end of the deal. And to do that, I have to leave for a while."

Deanna nodded in understanding. "Did you tell Sophie?"

"Yeah. Just now. I don't like it, and neither does she, but it's not something that can be avoided. To keep her safe, right now that means I have to go."

"And let me guess..." Deanna started, scooting back on the couch and brushing hair back behind her ears.

"I need you to watch out for her." Damon said. "I run in dangerous circles. I wasn't lying when I said I'm the kind of thing that nightmares are made of. There are only two people in the universe I even care enough about to put in danger, and I do my damnedest to keep them safe. "

"Sophie being one of them." Deanna said.

Damon just reached into his pocket. "I've made a lot of enemies in my time. Enemies that won't care Sophie is an innocent little girl. Hell, three months ago, _I _wouldn't have cared." He handed her a piece of paper."This hurts me, just as much as it hurts you. I don't work well with others, and I certainly don't work well with humans. I trust you, just about as much as you trust me, but I believe you can and will keep her safe. Ask anyone, I don't ask for help, _ever_, but right now I am begging you to help me protect her. Please."

Deanna looked down at the paper Damon had handed to her, and noted the number. She nodded and blinked patient green eyes at him. "I'll watch her." she said. "I'll keep her safe."

Damon sighed in relief. He wasn't sure what she would say. "If something comes up I should know about, you can call me at that number. I'll get the message."

Deanna nodded, and watched as Damon walked towards the door. As he opened it, and prepared to walk out the door, Deanna stopped him with a question.

"What makes her so special?" she asked, and when Damon turned back to her, he saw honest curiosity in her eyes. "What makes her so worth protecting?"

Damon shrugged. "I'll get back to you on that."

Without another word, Damon disappeared into the darkness.

He didn't look back.

**Author's Note: Send me a review and tell me what you think. I'd love to hear from you. :)  
**


	4. October, 1996

Chapter Three: _October, 1996_

It was pushing midnight when Deanna finally pulled her old Chevy truck into the driveway. She glanced up at the dark house and sighed. As much as she enjoyed having the house to herself, she really missed Valerie and Danny. She honestly couldn't wait until their anniversary cruise was over, and they came home, filling up the house with their noise.

The silence was about to drive her crazy.

Tired, Deanna reached over and gathered her backpack and gym bag. She crawled out of her truck at a snail's pace, wincing at sore muscles and the jolt of pain when she knocked her hip into the side of the truck, the bruise Dalton gave her when he jumped on her in all his two year old hyper-ness throbbing with her heart beat. She cracked her neck, and then started up the front porch steps.

It was her exhaustion that made Deanna less than her normally observant self. She was almost at her front door, when she saw the dark figure leaning against the side of her house, blending in with the shadows of the wrap around porch. She froze, and then forced herself to back slowly down the porch, prepared to drop her bags and fight back at the unknown figure at any moment.

It was then that the shadow chose to take one step forward, coming into the light of the moon just long enough for Deanna to see who it was.

"Jesus Christ!" Deanna hissed at Damon as he leaned casually against the porch railing, both hands in his pockets and his breath making small puffs in the cold air. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

Damon just smirked, as if he'd planned this reaction from her the whole time. "Little jumpy tonight, D?"

Deanna glared and stomped up her front porch. She brushed past Damon and dropped her bags at the front door. "It's Deanna, not D." she snapped. "And maybe if you weren't standing on my porch pretending to be a ninja, I wouldn't be so jumpy."

"But where's the fun in that?" Damon asked.

Deanna rolled her eyes and ignored him, unlocked her front door, and then reached for her bags, piling her gym bag on her shoulder. Damon managed to grab her backpack before she could reach for it, and slung it over his shoulder, not even wincing at the weight; and Deanna knew how heavy it was. She was the one who'd filled it up.

She raised an eyebrow, and then shrugged. If he wanted to carry her heaviest bag and act like some sort of gentleman, who was she to argue. "What the hell are you doing here anyway?"

"I was in the neighborhood." Damon said vaguely.

"And decided to hang out on my front porch?" She asked as she marched inside. She tossed her keys on the kitchen counter, threw her bags in a corner to be picked up later, and then turned around. Damon, whom she'd expected to find lurking behind her shoulders was nowhere to be seen.

A moment later, Deanna found him, still standing on the front porch, exactly where she'd left him. "Were you gonna come in? Or was it your plan to just stand on my porch all night and freeze to death?"

"Is that an invitation?" Damon asked, leaning against the door frame.

"To what? Come in or freeze? 'Cause I gotta tell you, I could have it either way. 'Course, if I let you freeze, then Mrs. Phillips next door will come over tomorrow morning wondering who the strange man on the porch is..." She drifted off and glanced over to the tan colored house to the right. She shuddered in mock horror. "I don't think I could handle another one of her talks about how the male species is evil and plotting to destroy the world."

Damon just sighed, an impatient sigh that made Deanna roll her eyes. "I was serious." he said.

"So was I." Deanna replied. When Damon didn't do anything, she sighed. "Do you need a gold plated invitation?" She curtsied. "Please, sir, come inside and share the warmth." The sarcasm dripped off her tongue.

Damon shook his head at her, but walked inside. He tossed her backpack to her as if it weighed nothing, forcing her to take a step backwards with the weight. She grunted slightly, before she dumped it mercilessly on the ground at the foot of the stairs.

"Not that I'm not _thrilled _to see you," Deanna started, making a bee line for the kitchen. "But what are you doing here? Really?"

"Maybe I missed you." Damon said. He followed her to the kitchen and sat down on one of the stools surrounding the island in the middle of the kitchen.

"Oh, please." Deanna said, "You and I both know you only care because Sophie cares."

Damon pretended to be offended at that statement, but at Deanna's raised eyebrow and knowing look, he let it fall off his face like water. "Yeah. True."

Deanna nodded and started puttering around the kitchen. "You're not going to tell me, are you?" She didn't even turn to look at him, but she did make sure she never turned her back completely on him. Damon smiled at the warrior he could see beneath the 'normal good-girl' act.

Damon didn't answer her, and Deanna just continued to ignore him. She moved around him silently, and eventually tossed a bottle of water at him before she gathered her bags and headed up the stairs, watching him in the reflections in the glass of the pictures that lined the stairwell.

Deanna opened a door at the top of the landing, and walked in. Damon followed into her room and sat down at her desk chair, spinning back and forth slightly.

He watched her start to toss the books that had been in her backpack on her bed, and saw her startle when he spoke. "So, what's your story, D?"

"Deanna." She said absently. "And I don't get the question."

"I mean, last time I was here, I pretty much told you I wasn't human. You didn't even bat an eye."

"Should I have started screaming? 'Cause for someone who isn't human, you're a lot less scarier than some of the_ actual_ humans I know."

"You should be scared of me." Damon said.

"I'm not." Deanna replied. She tossed her shoes into her closet and then plopped down on her bed, wrinkling the purple comforter, and flicking her hair behind her shoulders.

"Why not?" Damon asked, confused.

"'Cause contrary to what you think, you are _not _the scariest thing I've ever seen. The most annoying wannabe ninja maybe..." She pulled a book from the pile on her bed, grabbed a pen and her notebook and started writing.

"Which leads me back to my question. What's your story?"

"Do I have to have a story to know that there are things that live in the dark? Maybe I'm just not as oblivious as most."

Damon continued to stare at her until Deanna looked up from her notebook and sighed. "Okay. I have a story. And it's none of your business. So back off. Go bother Sophie or something."

"I'm curious." Damon said, and Deanna could hear the almost whine in his tone.

"Too bad." Deanna said, going back to her work. "It's my story. Not your's."

After a few moments of silence and a cold breeze suddenly drifted through the room, Deanna looked up and saw Damon was gone, the doors to the narrow widow's walk that wound around the side of the house open, blowing the cool October wind in through her room.

Deanna sighed and got up to shut the doors. After closing them, she looked at her homework and tossed it all on the ground.

A few minutes later, Deanna was curled up in bed, fast asleep, drifting into dreams of a dirty blonde haired boy and green eyes that matched her own.

O~O~O

Damon left Sophie's house and headed started for the hotel that he'd discovered the last time he was in Lawrence, the leather bound book he'd stolen from Deanna burning a hole in his pocket. He could still smell Sophie's scent all over his clothes and he couldn't help the smile that started over his face.

Sophie had turned five earlier that year, and even through all the questions and stories, was thrilled to see him, even though he hadn't been back to Lawrence in more than a year. He'd given up feeling guilty about her being attached to him. He enjoyed her warmth too much. And if she wanted to gift her sunshine filled smile to him, he really wasn't going to argue.

After checking into a room and making sure it was booked for the next week, Damon shrugged out of his jacket and then sat down at the table next to the window looking out over the small city. He pulled the book out from his jacket pocket, and opened it up, curious about the teenage girl who protected the small town from the things in the night, and who took his threats against her life as little more than annoyed scorn.

Damon thought he'd stolen her diary. What he found surprised him.

Instead of the diary he'd thought he'd stolen, this looked more like a record book. It'd started in 1994 with _'May, 1994. Dean attacked by Wampus. Grand Rapids, Michigan.' _

"The hell?" Damon muttered to himself. In Deanna's delicate and careful handwriting, she had documentation of things that a young girl like her shouldn't even know about: Wendigos, ghosts, a whole section on exorcisms for demons (that looked like the real deal, and not the crap that was on TV), how to banish a poltergeist, and ways to keep evil from entering a home. He did smile, however, at the entry that made a mention of vampires. _'Vampires: Dean says they don't exist. Catalog under same category as unicorns, fairies, the Loch Ness Monster, and Bigfoot. BS.'_

And that was the end of that.

Every few entries, there was a longer commentary, about someone named 'Dean'. _'I talked to Dean today. He still doesn't believe I'm alive. But he misses me so much, he's not going to complain. Not that he actually said that. I know how he is. He's more likely to respond to sarcasm and scorn then hugs and love. Boys.' _And in between, stories about 'Dad' and 'Sammy'. _'Sammy made the soccer team at school. Dean was so proud of him I thought his head was going to explode. The coach thinks that with Sammy, they could make it to the championships. Dad's not thrilled. I agree that they need to train, but why can't Sammy be a boy...a kid, for just a little while longer. And soccer has lots of running, right? I'll tell Dean next time I talk to him. Maybe he can use that arguement against Dad to help keep Sam on the team.' _

Damon spent the majority of the morning reading the strange book. It was one of the last couple of entries though, that made him stop. _'I finally got Dean to tell me about Mom last night. A demon killed her. A demon with yellow eyes. That's what Dad's hunting. Dean didn't really know much else. I felt bad, making him relive it. But I had to know. He was miserable. I made him cry. I just wish...I wish I could be there with him. I miss him so much. I just want my brothers back.' _

When Damon finally made it to the last entry, he carefully put the stack of newspaper clippings back in their plastic bag and slipped them between the pages again. He was staring out the window, tapping his jaw with his finger thoughtfully when angry footsteps stomped outside the door.

The door rattled with the force of someone pounding on it, and then a voice from behind the door yelled out. "Damon Salvatore! Open this door right now!"

Damon got up and opened the door. A pissed off teenage girl stood on the other side, and Deanna pushed her way in. It looked like she had just crawled out of bed, her sweatpants wrinkled and a sweatshirt thrown over them. Her messy hair was pulled into a pony tail and her eyes were bleary and swollen.

It looked like she'd been crying.

"Give it back!" She yelled at him.

Damon just stared at her, and then walked over to the side table he'd tossed the book on. He held it in her direction, and she practically ripped it from his hands, and then stomped from the room, slamming the door behind her.

She had only been gone for a second before Damon heard her footsteps again in the hallway. The door slammed open with the force of her anger and bounced off the wall. She stomped back in, letting the door slam shut behind her.

"The Hell were you thinking?" Deanna yelled. "Do the words 'personal space' mean any God-damned thing to you?"

"Who's Dean?" Damon asked calmly.

"None of your damn business!" Then her eyes widened. "You _read _it? What the _hell _is wrong with you?"

"I'm curious."

"Curiosity killed the cat, you know. I...just..." she was so angry she just let her sentence trail off. She wiped a hand over her face and huffed in frustration.

Damon shrugged. As impressive as her anger was, she wasn't all that scary. "I find you...fascinating. It's not very often I find someone who isn't scared of me."

"Fascinating?" Deanna was screeching at him now, and Damon could feel her anger crackle int he air. "_Fascinating!_ You know what I find you? An asshole! I can't believe...no, wait, I _can_ believe that you would stoop that low. You stay the _hell_ away from me!"

"Is that all real?" Damon asked, ignoring the fuming teen in front of him. "Is all that true? And if so, how are you able to communicate with them? I thought they disappeared. The lady I talked to before said no one's seen them since the fire."

Deanna whipped around to glare at him. "Tell me, Damon. You're so interested in my past, I want to know about your's. What prompts a grown...person thing to latch on to a five year old, huh? What in fact are you, if you aren't human? What's _your_ story?" When Damon didn't answer, Deanna huffed. "Thought so. Stay away from me, and stay away from my past."

Damon watched her storm out the door, slamming things in her wake. He shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the bed. He sprawled across the covers, making a mental note to track her down later, once she had calmed down and was willing to talk instead of yell.

He was asleep within seconds.

Deanna stormed out into the bright sunlight, and took a deep breath of the cool air. She felt like her skin was too tight, and there were bugs crawling all over her. Tears welled up in her eyes again, and she clutched her journal close to her chest. She'd thought she'd lost it. Her only tie to her past; the past that sometimes seemed as fragile and ethereal as a ghost.

Another deep breath later and Deanna turned towards the parking garage she'd parked in. She had thrown her things into the back of the truck bed and was reaching for the driver's door when a hand clamped down over her mouth, covering it with a piece of cloth.

Deanna barely had time to struggle before her world collapsed into darkness.

O~O~O

Something was wrong.

Damon knew that the second he woke up, and he suspected it was the feeling of 'wrongness' that had woken him up in the first place. As much as he mocked Stefan for 'feeling', Damon had been alive long enough to know to trust his instincts.

And this instinct was telling him something was very, very wrong.

Damon reached over, ran his fingers quickly through his hair and reached for his jacket.

Damon headed for the parking garage, his plan being to 'borrow' a car and drive over to Sophie's, just to be sure she was okay, before he figured out what was wrong. He stalked through the dark area, and was heading for the black Charger when he saw the truck.

Damon frowned, and instead of going to the charger, walked over to the beat up Chevy. The black backpack he'd helped Deanna carry the day before was tossed into the bed, and her keys were stuck in the door. But there was no sign of Deanna. He walked around the side of the truck, looking for any signs of a struggle, when his foot accidentally kicked something on the ground under the truck.

Damon crouched down and reached his hand under, and pulled out Deanna's journal. He frowned again. After her blowup, he knew Deanna wouldn't just leave this lying around, and she certainly wouldn't just leave her keys in the door of her truck, not when she should have been gone hours ago.

The bad feeling Damon could feel rolling underneath his skin only intensified. He took her keys and got in the truck. He was soon speeding down the road toward Sophie.

Damon didn't actually make it to Sophie's house, as three police cars lined the side of the road. He got out of Deanna's truck, and headed down the street, sticking to the shadows. Listening in on the police officer's conversation, he was able to hear that someone had kidnapped Sophie.

Red clouded Damon's vision and he resisted the urge to hit someone or something. He raced off down the street, intent on going to Jasmine's to demand she return Sophie...and Deanna, when he caught the scent of another vampire.

Damon slid to a stop and whirled around as a vampire with long blonde hair and blue eyes that shone in the even gloom stepped from the shadows.

"Amy." Damon growled, falling into a loose fighting stance.

Amy smiled and flicked her hair over her shoulder. "Damon. I wish I could say it was nice to see you again, but..." She let the last of her sentence trail off.

"Give them back." he snarled, letting his teeth show.

"No."

Damon lunged forward and wrapped his hands around her throat, shoving her against a tree. The tree groaned.

Amy didn't even try to fight back. She just continued to smile at him. "Go ahead. I'm not afraid to die. But if you kill me, you'll never find your girls."

"Where are they?" Damon asked, resisting the urge to rip her head from her shoulders.

Amy's blue eyes crinkled in her amusement. "The rumors _are_ true. I heard you'd gotten soft, caring about humans and such, but I didn't think it was _actually_ true. I mean, Damon Salvatore, caring about someone other than himself? And not just any someone's, but two human girls?" She clucked her tongue at him, before Damon choked off more of her air. Amy let out a surprised squeak.

"Does this seem soft to you?" he snapped,

"You didn't have to kill him, you know." Amy whispered, looking up at him with dewy eyes. Damon frowned.

"He threatened my _brother_." Damon said, digging his finger tips into the side of her neck. "I wasn't about to let that stand. Now. Where are Sophie and Deanna?"

"Carter was just doing his job!" Amy screamed at him, voice cracking under the strain of Damon's hand around her throat. "If your brother wasn't such a humanitarian, he wouldn't have gotten himself into that mess. He was just collecting on the contract."

"He stood up for himself, and that makes him bad?" Damon laughed. "Stefan is the best of all of us, Amy. You want to know why?"

"Why?" Amy spat. "Why is he any better than Carter?"

"Because Carter was a cold blooded killer. Stefan, the moron, protects everyone, human or vampire or demon, just because he's a nice guy. And I'm not saying it's smart, in fact, I agree he's an idiot. He _knows_ it pisses off a whole lot of creatures, but Stefan doesn't hurt anyone unless they attack him first. The thing with Micah? Micah attacked him first, just because he could. Stefan defended himself. Now, Carter didn't have to go after him. He didn't have to collect on that contract. But he attacked my family, and I take that personal."

"He was my mate!"

Damon shrugged. "Don't get me wrong. Killing humans...far as I'm concerned, with few exceptions, they're nothing more than cattle. They have their necessary functions, but when they've outlived their usefulness, I really don't see the point in keeping them around. They're _pests_, Amy. But killing vampires? That's a whole new level of evil. And when that evil targets the little bit of family I have left..." Damon shrugged. "Well, you saw what I did to Carter. And I'll do that to anyone who threatens him, or Sophie. Now. One more time. Where is she?"

"You've killed other vampires." Amy pointed out.

"You noticed that all the vampires I've killed have threatened me, or people I care about?" Damon pointed out. "I don't just kill my people for the hell of it. I kill in defense of myself, my brother and my humans. That's three people in the whole universe. Carter had six billion other people and vampires to threaten besides them."

Amy huffed a laugh. "You really _have_ gone soft."

"Where are Sophie and Deanna? Last chance." Damon said.

"Dead." Amy said with a grin. "Like you said, they're just cattle, right?" She winked at him. "An eye for an eye. I already know I'm no match for Stefan, but a couple of humans? Girls? They never stood a chance. And your scent was all over them. It's obvious you love them, seeing as they're still breathing. The older girl didn't even put up a fight. And the little one? So delicious. My fangs slid into her like her skin was made of butter..."

Amy never got to finish her sentence, as Damon swung his hand, knocking Amy's head clean off her shoulders. Her body stayed upright for a second longer, before it slumped to the ground with a satisfactory thump.

Damon went through her pockets and found a key for a motel, two towns over. He pocketed it, and headed back for Deanna's truck.

He had some humans to find.

O~O~O

Deanna woke to a pounding headache right behind her eyes, and an insistent shaking on her arm. She groaned and rolled over, trying to squelch the urge to throw up. The shaking only intensified, and it took a few seconds for Deanna to realize there was a small voice attached to the shaking.

Deanna forced her eyes to blink open, thankful it was dark, wherever they were, and tried to focus on the face that had planted itself in her vision. Sophie's worried features slowly swam into focus.

"Deanna? Deanna, please wake up." she whispered worriedly.

Deanna forced herself to move to a sitting position, hoping she wasn't going to throw up, and reached for the five-year-old. "Soph?" She licked her lips, trying to get her tongue to un-stick itself to the roof of her mouth. "Are you okay?" she asked, leaning against cold metal. She flinched momentarily, at the chilled air, and let the young girl burrow into her lap.

"Yes." Sophie whispered, snuggling close to Deanna. "I was scared you weren't going to wake up."

Deanna wrapped her arms around the girl, and blinked into the darkness. The only things she could see were metal bars of some sort of cage. It wasn't even tall enough for her to stand up in, and she was only slightly taller than five feet. It was too dim to make anything else out, but she was thankful it was wide enough for her to stretch her legs out. She wasn't too keen on small, confining spaces. However, it was too dim to see anything more.

"I'm okay, Sophie. Don't worry." she said, even as she shivered again, and closed her eyes against a wave of nausea.

The next words out of Sophie's mouth surprised her. "I want Damon." She whined petulantly. "I want to go home."

In the last year and a half, Deanna hadn't heard Sophie make any mention of Damon, and she'd expected Sophie to be calling for her mother, or her father, not for the dark haired stranger she'd only met a few times.

"I know." Deanna whispered, looking around as much as she could without moving and without letting go of Sophie. "I want to go home too."

"Is Damon going to come for us?" Sophie asked. "He said if I was ever scared, he'd come make it better. He said he'd scare the dark away from me. He _said._" Her green eyes looked huge in the darkness, and she blinked at Deanna, begging her to understand. "He promised."

"I...I think he'll try to find you." she answered as honestly as she could.

Sophie nodded. "He'll look for you too." She looked determined. "I made him promise to be nice to you. And he said you would. 'Cause you're my pretend big sister. And Damon said that's okay. That it was his job to keep me safe, and if I wanted, he'd keep you safe too."

Deanna rolled her eyes. "Can you tell me what it is about him that makes you like him so much?"

Sophie shrugged against her. "He's...I'm just his person."

"You're his person?" Deanna repeated skeptically. "What does that even mean, kiddo?"

"He's sad all the time." Sophie said, playing with the frayed edges of her shirt. "And he's...scary. But not to me. And everyone needs a person, right? Like Jeremiah is your person?"

"Jeremiah is my person?" Deanna asked. And despite the situation they'd found themselves in, Deanna was amused. "I didn't know that."

"You didn't?" Sophie asked. "I thought everyone knew who their person was."

"What makes you think Jeremiah is my person?" Deanna asked.

"Mr. 'Miah makes you smile. And you get all glowy and sparkly when you see him."

"You know that Jeremiah and I are just friends, right Sophie. We're not like your mommy and daddy. He's not my boyfriend or anything."

Sophie wrinkled her nose. "Well, no. Gross, Deanna." Deanna laughed. "That would be icky. You're not like mommy and daddy. You're just his person. Like I'm Damon's person. Like Uncle Andy is Daddy's person and Miss Valerie is Mommy's person." She looked up at Deanna, willing her to understand.

"You mean, you're his best friend?"

"Yes!" Sophie said, exasperated, like it was difficult explaining such things to her.

"Why?"

Sophie shrugged again, and Deanna felt her shiver. She gingerly detatched herself from the little girl, took off her sweatshirt, shivering in the cold in just the tee-shirt she'd worn to bed the night before and wrapped it around Sophie. Sophie curled into the warmth, and then sat back down against Deanna. "Because there's no one else to be his friend." Sophie finally said, after she was settled. "It's just me. And everyone needs a person, right?"

Deanna nodded wrapping her arms around the tiny girl. She had started to get concerned. The temperature seemed to be dropping, and she'd been looking at her breath for the last few minutes. She wrapped herself more firmly around Sophie, trying to keep her warm with her own rapidly dwindling body heat.

"Sometimes you're sad too." Sophie suddenly whispered into the darkness. Deanna jerked. She had drifted into a kind of cold haze, daydreaming about sandy beaches and warm sun. She blinked the heaviness from her eyes, and forced herself to stay awake. There was no telling how long she'd been dozing.

"What?" she croaked out. Her nose was running, and her throat was sore, and she couldn't feel her legs or her butt anymore. Sophie wiggled weakly against her, completely contradictory to the hyper, excited and bouncy girl she was used to.

"You're sad too. Sometimes."

"Like Damon?" she asked wearily. She was so tired, and if Sophie would just be quiet for five minutes...

"No. Not like Damon. Different. But still sad."

"Hmm..." Deanna murmured.

"I think it's your empty space that makes you so sad. I guess I'd be sad too if I was only part of a person." Sophie said. She leaned back to look at Deanna. "Maybe if you filled up your empty space, you would be happier more often."

Deanna's eyes flew open at that. As sluggish as her mind was becoming, she'd heard that phrase before. From a brother she hadn't seen in almost fourteen years. "My empty space?"

"Yeah." Sophie turned to look at her. "You have a missing piece. Like a puzzle when you drop the pieces on the floor and one piece falls under the couch, and you don't know it, and so the puzzle isn't finished. And it has an empty space."

Deanna forced a smile. "I don't have any empty spaces, Soph."

Sophie sighed. "I forget. Sometimes grown-ups can't see the empty spaces. I don't know why. They're really big!"

Deanna looked at her for a moment, and then leaned back against the wall. She was starting to drift off again, when Sophie spoke, quieter than before, sounding weak and scared. "What if...what if Damon doesn't find us? What'll happen to us then?"

"I don't know, squirt. I really don't know."

O~O~O

Damon pulled Deanna's truck up outside the old meat packing plant, and spread his senses wide, searching for any sign of the girls.

He couldn't hear them or smell them, and that scared him to death.

Damon had tracked down the motel that Amy had been staying in, and after compelling and threatening an employee, he'd found out that Amy had been very interested in the old abandoned buildings in the area.

Especially places that were open to the elements. October in Kansas was extremely cold.

Cold enough that two humans might not be able to survive.

The old meat packing plant was the third place he'd checked. He didn't know what he was going to do if he got to the end of the list and didn't find them.

The cold, achy feeling of loss had settled itself deep in his chest, preparing himself for the worst. He mostly just wanted to curl up in a corner and wither away and die, as he'd wanted to do when Katherine had been killed. But Stefan had pulled him back to the light. Stefan had shown him there was a reason to live. Even if his reason was keeping his idiot brother alive. He'd promised, a long time ago, that he'd look after his brother. And it was that feeling of duty that had kept him from falling on a stake an ending the insane foreverness or eternal life.

Now, for Sophie, he'd found a reason to live for _him. _Not for anyone else. Sophie was his, just like Stefan used to be. And he'd keep trying, for her, until the end of time.

But if she was really gone...

He couldn't guarantee he couldn't just curl up somewhere and die.

Damon forced those thoughts out of his head, and picked up the flashlight off the floor board of Deanna's truck. He jumped out onto the snowy ground and stomped over to the door. He ripped it open, not taking the time to be subtle.

The old building was freezing, and a light sheen of frost covered most the objects inside. He shuddered to think how long the girls might have been there. How long until they succummed to hypothermia? He'd seen first hand, back during the Civil War, what hypothermia could do to a person. An image of Sophie, lying on the ground, skin and lips blue and chapped, eyes open and eyelashes covered in frost, dead, popped into his head. He forced it away, and an image of Deanna, the same way, replaced it.

Working around those kinds of thoughts, even though each one felt like a bullet in his back, Damon started a quick, but effective search of the whole building. It wasn't until he was halfway to the small storage shed at the back of the property, that he heard any noise.

A faint and weak thumping.

Thumping that any vampire would know as a heartbeat.

Damon broke off into a run, and tore open the shed door. He swung the beam of light around and froze when it landed on the sight in the corner.

Deanna and Sophie were curled up together in the corner of an old fashioned cage made out of iron bars. Sophie sat on Deanna's lap, huddled down in her sweatshirt. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was obviously shallow. Deanna didn't look like she was breathing at all, her lips blue and her skin pasty white and pale underneath her tee shirt. Her she was curled protectively around Sophie, arms holding her tight to her chest.

Damon rushed forward and pulled the padlocked door off the cage. It came off readily enough, even though the metal groaned , and Damon crawled in, reaching for Sophie first.

Sophie had a death grip on Deanna, her arms wrapped around her waist, and Deanna's arms were pinned over and around Sophie, trying to keep her from touching any of the cold metal. It was effort to detangle the two girls from each other, and when Sophie's arms came loose, she blinked awake slowly, looking around with a weak and confused gaze.

"Sophie?" Damon asked, leaning down to her level, holding her up. "Sophie can you hear me?"

"D'mn?" she whispered, shivering so hard Damon was scared she was going to go into convulsions.

"Yeah, sweets. Can you stand for me. Just for a minute. I have to get Deanna. Stand right there." He let go over her, and she stood, swaying on her feet. Damon wasn't sure she was actually paying attention, or if she was still processing, but he wasn't going to find out. Before Sophie could decide to not stay on her feet, Damon reached back in for Deanna.

Deanna was unconscious, and her breath was far too shallow. Damon could barely hear her heartbeat, and had to listen carefully to find it. He quickly pulled her into his arms, wrapped his jacket around the freezing girl, and then went back for Sophie.

"Sophie. Look at me!"

At the direct order, Sophie raised her head to look at him, sluggish and confused. Damon felt horrible for yelling at her, but knew it had to be done to save her life. "Soph, I want you to crawl up on my back. I have to carry Deanna, so you have to hold on tight. Got it?"

It took some maneuvering, but Damon finally got Sophie up on his back, more or less holding on by herself, and then picked up Deanna. Using his vampire speed, he ran back out to the truck, and piled both girls into the cab next to him. He turned the heater on full blast, and turned down the highway, praying to a God he didn't actually believe in that they were going to be okay.

O~O~O

She was warm.

That was the first thing her sluggish and surprised mind was able to process.

The second thing she noticed was soft quiet voices somewhere to her left. Something small and warm wiggled against her side.

Deanna cracked her eyes open, and was glad to see the room was dim. She didn't think she couldn't handle the light just then. She craned her neck to the side, and saw Sophie curled up against her side. Damon was sitting in chair next to her, talking quietly to the young girl.

Damon was the first to notice she was awake, and he gave her a smile. From the look he gave her, she had a feeling he knew she'd been awake...or almost awake for a long time.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, D."

Sophie turned around at that, and when she saw Deanna's eyes were open, pounced on her.

"Deanna!" she cried out, ignoring Deanna's grunt as she pushed all the air out of her. She wrapped her arms around her neck. Deanna choked slightly, but let her arms come up to encircle the young girl.

"Hey, Soph. You okay?"

"I'm okay." Sophie said, pulling away from Deanna. She looked at her with a gaze that Deanna found her self thinking was far too old for a five year old. "I was scared you weren't going to wake up...again. But Damon promised you would."

"He did, did he?"

"Yep! And he was right! Damon always keeps his promises. He told me so."

Deanna looked up at Damon, and he stood up, stretching kinks out of his back before looking down at Sophie. "And what did you promise me, Sophie?" he asked gently.

Sophie sighed, and then looked at Deanna. "I promised I'd go to bed like a good girl when you woke up." She looked around the room and then leaned forward to whisper conspiratorially. "I'm supposed to be in bed, but Damon let me stay up. Shh."

Deanna found a smile for her, honestly amused. Sophie could never fail to make her smile. "Well then you'd better do what you promised. Damon might not let you stay up so late next time."

Sophie gave her one more hug and then scampered from the room. Damon followed, leaving Deanna alone in the darkness.

Deanna pushed herself to a sitting position, pulling the blankets on the bed up with her and wrapping them around her shoulders. She looked around the hospital room in curiosity, blinking against the gloom. She was only hooked up to an IV, all of the other machines sitting quietly in the corner. Sitting on the floor next to the window was the pink duffel bag she kept in her truck for emergencies. On top of it sat an extra pair of socks and a few books. Her hairbrush sat on the table next to her, and after stretching out her stiff arms, she reached for it and began brushing out her hair.

Damon walked back in as she was finishing her last strokes, already exhausted from the brief bit of activity. He came and sat back down in the chair he'd been sitting in before, and propped his feet up on the edge of her bed.

"How long have I been out?" she asked. Her throat was scratchy, and Damon seemed to hear that. He reached over to pour her a glass of water.

"A little over twenty-four hours. You're...folks were here, but the hospital sent them home. They should be back sometime tomorrow morning." he said, handing her the glass. She managed to drain most of it before Damon took it away and set it within easy reach on the side table.

"But they let you stay?"

"So I snuck back in. Sue me. I told Sophie I'd keep an eye on you. And like she said, I keep my promises."

Deanna rolled her eyes at him. "I don't need a babysitter, you know." She looked over at him shyly. "But...thanks. I do appreciate it."

Damon nodded, "I guess I kinda owed you one." He cleared his throat and then raked his fingers through his hair. "I'm...uh...not good with the whole gratitude thing. But I just want to say...thank you. For keeping Sophie safe and all. The doctors said that if you hadn't given up your sweatshirt for her, she would have died. As it was you almost did, and uh...I I just wanted you to know I appreciate it."

"That looked painful." Deanna snarked.

Damon smirked at her. "Yeah. Don't make me do it again. I don't know if I can handle it."

"Don't worry about it. I kept her safe, you saved my life. We'll call it even."

"Deal." Damon said, offering her a smile.

Deanna grinned back at him, and then started to pick at her cuticles. "I care about her too, you know. She's a good kid, and with her mom and Valerie being best friends, she's kinda become the little sister I never had, you know."

Damon nodded. "Yeah. I know. She's told me time and time again that you're her pretend big sister. She adores you."

Deanna glanced over at him when it seemed he wasn't going to offer any more, and asked, "What happened?"

Damon folded his hands between his knees and looked up at her. "Do you want the official police story...that you're gonna have to back up...or do you want the truth?"

"Official story." Deanna said, leaning back against the pile of blankets.

Damon nodded. "You were driving around downtown, and had stopped for coffee. You saw a man wrestle Sophie into a motel room, and decided to follow. He kidnapped both of you and locked you in a cage and left you two to the elements. He drove your truck, and I was driving into town when I saw it, noticed it was yours, and decided to investigate."

"And how do you and I know each other?" Deanna asked. "I can't exactly say that you've been sneaking into Sophie's bedroom off and on for the last year or so, and that you and I met because you decided to threaten me about her."

"I told them we met at your high school. I'm one of the student's older brothers."

"And they bought that? What if they decide to look into the school records and see that there is no Damon Salvatore?" Deanna asked. "And how am I going to describe the drifter that kidnapped us? I didn't actually see anyone."

Damon smirked. "I'm very persuasive. They won't look into any records. Besides, the doctors found traces of chloroform in your system. It's okay if you are a little hazy on the details."

Deanna shook her head. "Do we know what actually happened?"

"Yeah."

"You gonna tell me?"

Damon sighed. He hesitated for a moment, and it was the first time Deanna had ever seen him not look calm and collected; the first time he'd seen him not look confident and sure of himself. She could tell he was trying to decide what to tell her, and what to keep from her. After what seemed like forever, Damon took a deep breath and finally started speaking. "I'm not a good person, D. That part you know."

"I thought we'd decided you weren't a person, period." Deanna said. When Damon looked up, she gave him a soft, encouraging smile. He smiled tentatively back.

"True. But I'm not a good...thing, either. I've made quite a few enemies." Damon and Deanna sat in the silence before Damon continued, not even looking her in the eye.

"I have a brother, D. He's...he's a good man. But his way of life is so different from the rest of my kind. It makes others...uncomfortable. And because he is so different, he brings a lot of trouble his way. He stands up for himself and what he believes in, the moron." Deanna snorted at him, and he saw her smiling. "What?"

"Only you would say that being a good person made said person a moron."

"Do you want to hear this or not?" Damon snapped, even though he was smiling slightly too. Deanna held up her hands in surrender, and Damon continued.

"Stefan makes other's of my kind uncomfortable, especially when he hurts others trying to keep the humans safe." He looked up, and saw Deanna watching him patiently. "In 1994 Stefan, killed one of us, to keep him from killing an entire school full of children. Now, the guy, Micah, he attacked Stefan first. Stefan was just going to talk, but he ended up killing him." Deanna's eyes widened, and Damon continued. "Because he did that, a contract was put out on his head. I stopped it, but doing that I killed someone named Carter. Carter had a mate. And my kind...we mate for life."

Deanna nodded her understanding. "It was his mate who kidnapped us?"

"Yeah." Damon breathed. "Her name was Amy."

"_Was_?"

Damon looked at her square on, and Deanna could see the protective danger lurking in his eyes. "Was. Past tense. She attacked Sophie. And she kidnapped you. I wasn't going to put up with that."

"I didn't know you cared so much." Deanna said, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "That just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside."

Damon poked her lightly in the leg. "You still haven't outlived your usefulness. And so help me, I actually kinda like you."

"I'm touched." Deanna said sarcastically, smirking at him. Damon rolled his eyes at her.

"You should be." Damon said, and when Deanna met his gaze, she could tell it wasn't sarcasm behind his words. He was serious.

"So this Amy chick kidnapped us, why?"

Damon shrugged. "An eye for an eye. She could tell I cared about Sophie, and so took her. And then I guess she didn't hear you screaming at me, but she did see you go in to see me that day, and my scent was all around you and your house since I'd been the night before. I guess she just assumed you were on the same level as Sophie. No offense, but you're not even close."

"None taken." Deanna said. When Damon stayed silent, she spoke again. "What is it about her that makes you want to protect her? Out of everyone, why her?"

Damon shook his head. "If I knew, I'd tell you. She's just...different. I just know I don't want anything to happen to her. Ever. She's just...mine."

"You can't protect her forever, Damon." Deanna said gently. "Not if the things in the dark decide they want her bad enough. No one can protect her if it comes to that."

"I can try." Damon said, eyes flashing with determined fire.

Deanna nodded, and then looked down at her hands. She fiddled with them a little, and then started picking at her cuticles. "I am sorry I flipped out on you about the journal. It's just...I used to have a family, and that's the only thing I have of them, you know?"

Damon looked up at her, and she took a deep breath. "It's still my story, but...I know about the things in the dark because, my dad? He hunts those kinds of things. He's looking for the thing that killed my mom. The night my house caught on fire, back in '82? A demon started it. I don't know why, and neither does Dean. He's the one I talk to."

"How is that? You said they thought you were dead."

Deanna smiled warily. "Have you ever heard of 'twin telepathy'?"

"Yeah." Damon said. "It's supposed to be an urban legend...that twins can communicate when they aren't actually talking. It's not supposed to be real."

"You of all people should know that there are lots of things that aren't supposed to be real." Deanna said with a smirk.

"Are you telling me, that you and your wayward twin have been communicating all these years? With your mind?" Damon asked incredulously.

"I have these dreams. And I didn't think they were real for the longest time. But...I started looking into some of the details...and everything that the Dean in my dreams told me, was true in real life. I found evidence of my family. That journal...is all the work I've done on it."

"You're tracking them." Damon said.

Deanna nodded. "My father, John? He's a hunter. And he's been training my brothers since my mom was killed."

"Your father is John Winchester?" Damon asked.

"You know him?" Deanna sat up, looking at his hopefully.

"No." Damon said, watching the hope deflate from Deanna's eyes. "By reputation only. I didn't even think you were part of the same family. He's very good at what he does."

"Yeah?" Deanna asked, pride drifting into his eyes.

"Yeah." Damon said, nodding slightly. He didn't tell her he knew about him because he killed things like Damon. That was a conversation he didn't really want to have with the girl who had saved Sophie's life. Not this time. "So why aren't you with them? Why are you still in this crappy town?"

Deanna shrugged. "They think I'm dead. And nothing I say to Dean will make him believe me. He thinks I'm a figment of his imagination. Which, yeah, okay. But he won't even look into anything I tell him. And he won't give me information to get in touch with him. Everything I've found, I've fought for tooth and nail."

"That's why you flipped out."

"Everything that Dean learns, he teaches to me. Every time they move, or Sammy does something, or Dad accomplishes something...or Dean, he tells me. I don't know why, but I don't question it. And everything he tells me, goes into that book. When I'm old enough, I'm going to track them down. One day I'm going to prove to him I'm not dead."

"You're going to hunt with them?"

"They're hunters, Damon." Deanna said. "If I have to become a hunter too, fine. I just want my family back. That's all I've ever wanted." Deanna yawned there at the end, and Damon could see she was exhausted. "I don't think I'm asking for too much." Her eyes started to drift close.

"Go to sleep." Damon said softly, using the voice Stefan used to like when they were children. "You've been through a lot."

"I'm always gonna watch out for her." Deanna mumbled sleepily into the thin pillows of the hospital bed. "She's mine just as much as she is yours."

Damon was silent, and watched as she drifted off into sleep. It was only then that he crept out of her room and walked down the hallway.

When Deanna woke up later, Sophie was curled up against her side again, her parents and Valerie and Danny were talking quietly in the corner and the pale light of dawn was filtering across the floor.

Damon was gone...as if he'd never even been there in the first place, and when Deanna asked about him, no one even remembered seeing him since he'd talked to the police early on when he'd brought Deanna and Sophie in.

Deanna asked Sophie about him, and she just shrugged.

"He'll be back." she said confidently. "He always comes back."

And the thing was...Deanna knew she was right.

Deanna let herself fall asleep that night, in her own bed, to the sounds of the TV downstairs, dreaming dreams of missing brothers, and strange 'not-people'.

And when she woke up, her journal was sitting on her lap, a sticky note stuck to the front.

_'There are wolves in the world, D. Look after Sophie and keep her safe. If you are anything like your father, I know she'll be fine. Remember, not all wolves are bad, and not all angels are good. Stay sharp. ~Damon.' _

Deanna rolled her eyes, and shoved it inside one of the pockets on the inside cover before getting up to start her day. She had a feeling she hadn't seen the last of Damon Salvatore.

And she was right.

**Author's Note: This was so hard, and I'm not sure I'm happy with it. Honestly, this chapter was so hard to write, I felt like I had to forcefully pull the words out of my brain with pliers to leave them in a bloody pile on the ground in front of me to sort through. But it's done...or as done as it's going to be. I'm going to do a chapter for my other story, and give myself a break with this one, and then I'll be back to working on another chapter. I thank everyone for their reviews and their patience. If you guys weren't so supportive, this chapter wouldn't have made it up. So on behalf of Sophie, Deanna and Damon, I just want to say thank you.**

**And thank you to all of the anonymous reviews. I do appreciate them, even though I can't reply to them and say thank you individually. So I thank you as a whole. :) **

**Happy reading. **


	5. April, 1997

_Dedication: To my favorite Jedi Master/Ninja Warrior. May the force be with you buddy. You will be sorely missed. Tuesday mornings just won't be the same without you. RIP Trey. :( _

Chapter Three: _April, 1997_

Sophie's green eyes blinked up at him, shining against the moonlight from her bedroom window.

"And then what happened?" she asked, sprawled out on her stomach, chin in her hands, and kicking her feet back and forth.

Damon smiled at her. "So each night, Scheherazade told the king a different story. And each night she didn't finish it, because she knew that if she did, the king would kill her."

Sophie nodded seriously. "That's really smart."

Damon nodded. "It is smart. She told him stories about magic..." and at that, Damon produced a quarter from behind her ear, earning a delighted giggle from the girl. "...mermaids, and thieves. Love stories, and fairy tales, and even stories about genies. She told him a different story for a thousand and one nights."

"Wow." Sophie breathed, playing with the quarter and looking suitably impressed.

"Yeah. Now, eventually she ran out of stories. But it didn't matter. At the end of the thousand nights, the king had fallen so deeply in love with her, that he decided to marry her. For real this time."

"And they lived happily ever after!" Sophie said, getting up on her knees and bouncing up and down a couple of times.

Damon grinned. "That they did," he agreed. "And now its time for little princesses such as yourself to go to bed."

"Are you going to tell me stories for a thousand nights?" Sophie asked, leaping back towards her mountain of pillows.

"I'll tell you as many stories as you like, Cira. Forever and ever if you want."

Sophie rewarded him with a brilliant smile, and Damon let himself bask in her warmth; in the smile she had just for him. Damon pulled the covers up to her chin, and carefully tucked the blankets around her. He placed a kiss on her forehead, and waited until her eyes had shut before turning for the window.

He nearly fell over when he saw Katherine Pierce standing there, leaning against the wall, wearing the same dress she'd been wearing the night she'd been taken from him.

Damon froze. "Katherine?" he whispered in shock.

Katherine only smiled softly at him, and gracefully stepped forward. She reached up and pulled Damon into a long, lingering kiss. Damon could only wrap his arms around her, intent on never letting go.

After a few long seconds, Katherine pulled away, still smiling. "It's been far too long, Darling. I've missed you."

Damon couldn't do anything but stare at her in amazement. "How..."

Katherine just patted his cheek and moved around him, eyes on Sophie. "Hello, child." she said, as she knelt down by the side of the bed.

Damon could smell Sophie's fear and uncertainty about the new stranger in her bedroom, but watched with pride as she sat up and plastered on one of her brilliant smiles for Katherine, being polite to someone Damon obviously cared about. "Hi."

Katherine turned her gaze to Damon. "She's delicious." she moved to sit on the bed next to the girl. "I can see the attraction."

Damon narrowed his eyes as Katherine turned her attention back to Sophie, looking at her the same way she'd once looked at their servant boy: like something to eat.

"She's a child, Katherine. Not a piece of meat." Damon pointed out. Sophie's gaze was skittering between the two vampires, and Damon hated that the carefree expressions from before were suddenly buried under wary fear. Sophie didn't know what they were, and if Damon ever had his way, she was never going to find out.

He'd decided the first time he'd ever met her, that he would die to protect her warm innocence.

Didn't mean she wasn't smart enough to make her own conclusions from a conversation like the one happening over her head.

Katherine's eyes narrowed, and Damon could see the predator beneath the brown pools of wonder he'd fallen in love with so many years ago.

"She's human, Damon. Humans _are_ meat."

"Not Sophie." Damon insisted. "Not his human."

Katherine cocked an eyebrow at him. "You know her name. You're telling her bedtime stories...is there something you want to tell me?"

"She's mine, Katherine. And we're not eating her." Damon said forcefully. As much as he loved the woman in front of him, he wasn't at all surprised to find his loyalty fell to the human child.

Katherine's eyes softened to something like sympathy. She reached back and began stroking Sophie's hair, like a beloved pet. "She's human." Katherine said again. "You can't get attached to them. It doesn't end well."

Damon could see the effort it was taking Sophie to hold still. She was trembling slightly, and that just made Damon angry. "Doesn't end well? Like it didn't end well for us?"

Her eyes narrowed again, and Damon could feel her anger even as she continued to gently stroke Sophie's hair.

"The thing about humans..." Katherine said, as she ran her fingers down Sophie's jawline. She let the palm of her hand rest against Sophie's pulse. "...is that they're so damn delicate. One, tiny twitch of your fingers..."

Damon lunged forward as Katherine tightened her grip on Sophie's neck. Sophie let out a surprised squeak before a loud crack sounded throughout the room, bringing Damon to a stunned halt.

Sophie dropped onto the bed like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Her neck was bent at an impossible angle, and her eyes were open, expression fixed on the far wall. Behind the cooling gaze, Damon could still see the residual fear, forever etched into her eyes.

As Damon's heart shattered, and his emotions shut down, he turned on Katherine. Red clouded his vision, as he grabbed her by her neck and threw her through the window.

She was already standing when Damon landed in front of her. "You killed her!" he yelled. "Why?"

Katherine just stood there calmly, and Damon hated her for it. "It was for your own good. I could feel your emotions from the street, all warm and fuzzy as they were. If I could feel them, then other vampires could too."

"For my own good? She was mine, Katherine! Mine!" Damon knew he sounded like a bratty child, but he didn't care. "She was the only thing in this damned life that wasn't touched by darkness. And you took her from me." he let his voice get low and dangerous. "And I can't let you live for that."

"This is exactly what I'm talking about, Damon. You got so attached to a human that you are willing to turn on your fellow vampire. On me? Other vampires would have sensed the good feelings inside you, and they would have used that against you. She would have died a horrible and painful death." Katherine met his gaze. "Would you have been able to survive that? I did this for you. This way, her death was quick and painless. And now you can move on with your life."

"Like ripping off a band-aide."

"Exactly." She smiled at him, sympathy back in her gaze. "I can imagine how you must feel, but believe me, it's better this way. Please, learn from my mistakes. I can't bear to see you in the same pain that I went through."

Damon ran forward, intent ripping her head off. Katherine, however, was older, and therefore faster. She moved so fast that Damon didn't even see her. He spread out his senses, looking for the woman who had killed his reason for existing.

She'd disappeared.

Damon closed his eyes, and then turned back to the house, once it was clear Katherine wasn't coming back. It didn't matter. He'd spend the rest of time hunting her down and killing her slowly if that was what it took. He'd make her know just how much Sophie meant to him.

"D...Damon."

A weak whisper that Damon would know anywhere suddenly filled the air around him. Damon's eyes snapped open, to see Sophie standing in front of him, wearing jeans and a tee-shirt, not the clothes he'd tucked her into bed with.

However, it was her pale complexion, weak voice and glazed eyes the concerned Damon the most.

Sophie took one step towards him, pain etched into her soft features. The most graceful human Damon knew pitched forward towards the ground in a weak flail of arms and legs.

Damon caught her just before she hit the ground, and pulled her close. Sophie had always been warm, like she had her own little sun deep inside her somewhere, but now, she was cold. Her icy skin had tiny droplets of sweat clinging to it, and when Damon wrapped his arms around her, he could feel the slight tremors running through her tiny body.

"Sophie..." he whispered, pushing sticky strands of hair off of her face.

"H...hurts, Damon." she choked out. "Make...m...make it stop."

Tears filled her eyes as she gazed up at Damon, begging to make the pain stop. Pain Damon couldn't see.

"Where? Sophie, where does it hurt?"

"Every...where. P...please. Please, make it stop."

Damon didn't know what to do, and only clutched the girl in his arms all the more tightly, whispering sweet nothings of comfort in her ear. She whimpered and keened, small pained noises that made Damon flinch every time.

"You can't save her." Katherine said, suddenly appearing in front of him again. She crouched down in front of him. "It's better this way."

"It's not better this way." Damon insisted. "She's supposed to live."

"One day she'll die." Katherine said practically. "One day. And maybe she'll die of old age. You and I both know that it's more likely she'll be hunted and killed for the attraction you have with her." She met his gaze while he continued to rock Sophie's shivering body. "You are not a good man, Damon. You never have been. And you're enemies will become her enemies. She will die, and you will continue. It is the natural order of things. Best to just kill her now."

Damon didn't even have a chance to open his mouth before Sophie's back arched up over his arms. Her heartbeat stuttered once, before stopping completely.

Which is when Damon jerked awake in his hotel room, breathing hard.

A few seconds later he was out the door, headed to Sophie's house.

O~O~O

Deanna wasn't all that surprised when she walked into her room, hot cup of coffee in her hand to find Damon standing in the middle of her bedroom. She'd gotten used to him appearing at random intervals, and had grown to accept his constant presence.

After quietly shutting the door so as not to wake up Valerie or Daniel, Deanna offered Damon a sleepy smile in the early morning light and took a sip from her coffee.

"Morning." she said between a yawn, setting down her coffee and turning to pull her hair up into a pony tail.

"She's gone." Damon said, voice cracking on the end.

Deanna finished tying off her pony tail, and then turned to look at Damon. It was then that she noticed the disheveled and panicked look on his face. For the first time since she'd known him, he wasn't acting as the calm, cool and collected...whatever he was. It was slightly unnerving to see someone so constant and predictable so panicked and scared.

Because the only expression she could positively identify was fear.

"Damon...are you okay?"

Damon lunged forward, pushing her up against the wall, putting his face up close to her own. For the first time since she'd met Damon, she felt tiny tendrils of fear coil under her skin.

"You. Are. Not. Listening." Damon ground out, holding on to Deanna's shoulders so tight she could feel bruises starting to form. "She's gone. I can't find her, and I can't smell her and..." He let go of her suddenly, and pushed away from the wall, running his hands through his hair.

Deanna pushed her coffee cup at him, forcing Damon to either take it from her or drop it, and then sat down cross legged on the middle of her bed. She waited until Damon had taken a sip before she asked, "Is there something or someone in town I should know about?"

"No." Damon said, feeling the caffeine flow through his system, calming him slightly and clearing his head.

Slightly.

Sophie was still missing.

Deanna cocked an eyebrow. "Are you sure? Last time there was an old..._friend_ of your's in town, Sophie almost died."

"I know what happened. I was there too, remember? This town's been quiet. Boring, actually." Damon snapped at her. "There's nothing and no one here."

Deanna nodded. "Okay. So how do you know the Davies didn't just go out of town? I know they were talking about going to Dallas to visit some family..."

"Sophie would have mentioned it. Plus, it would leave a trail. A scent." Damon started pacing her room. "There's just...nothing."

"What could that mean?" Deanna asked, puttering around with something at his back. Damon didn't even turn around.

"I...I don't know. I've never, _not _been able to track someone before. Everything has a scent, and everything leaves a trail. Her house still smells like her, but...after you leave the property there's just...nothing." He turned to her, begging. "There's never been _nothing _before. And I looked and I looked..."

Deanna just nodded her understanding. "I don't get what you want from me, Damon. If you can't find her, what makes you think that I can?"

"I had this...dream." Damon started, and Deanna tilted her head, a soft, amused smile forming on her lips. "Shut up." he said, seeing the skeptical look on her face. "I know what you're thinking. But Sophie was in this dream. And she was in so much pain..." he drifted off, staring out the window, the sound of Sophie keening in agony rattling around his head.

"Damon?" Deanna whispered, bringing him back to the present.

Damon turned back to her. "She was begging me for help. And I couldn't do anything." Deanna just blinked at him. "I want you to do the thing you do with your brother."

Deanna shook her head. "My dreams are...I don't know. I'm not actually sure they _are _dreams. But I can't turn it on and off. And I most certainly can't aim it at other people."

"You could try." Damon insisted. He hesitated for a moment before he asked softly, "Please."

Deanna looked at him, eyes full of sympathy and compassion. She knew how hard it was for him to say that one, simple word. Damon didn't beg, and he most certainly didn't say please. "Damon...you know me. You know that if I could I would..."

Damon sighed and began pacing again. He turned around when the sound of a phone ringing sounded through the room from the speaker of Deanna's telephone.

A woman's voice answered and Damon watched as Deanna forced a smile onto her face, even as he could see the worry and concern in her eyes. "Hi Jennifer, it's Deanna."

Jennifer's voice stuttered on the other end. "Uh, Deanna...this really isn't a...a good time."

Deanna and Damon exchanged a look. "Okay. Um, I was just wondering what Sophie was up to today. I was going to go see a movie and wanted to see if my very own personal movie critic wanted to come."

There was silence on the other end for a moment, before Jennifer said quietly, "Sophie's...we're at the hospital."

Deanna looked up to find her room empty, Damon gone. She shook her head, again, not surprised at his disappearing act, and then glanced back down at the phone. "What happened? Is Sophie okay?"

Deanna could hear Jennifer's deep breath on the other end of the line. "I don't know. She started complaining of a headache at about two this morning. By three she was screaming about the pain, and at four she just..."

Deanna was already reaching for clothes, throwing jeans on over her sleep shorts and digging through the pile of clothes on her floor for a sweatshirt. "She just what?" Deanna asked, shoving her feet into shoes as she looked around for her car keys.

"She just...stopped."

Deanna froze. "Stopped?"

"She...I don't know kiddo." Jennifer took another breath, and Deanna could hear Mike's voice on the other as well, muttering softly in the background. "She was screaming about the pain in her head, and then she just stopped moving. She closed her eyes, and we thought she'd finally fallen asleep. But we haven't been able to wake her up, and she's not responsive to anything."

"I'm on my way." Deanna said, grabbing her wallet off the nightstand.

"Deanna, sweetie, you don't have to come in..."

"Sophie's my friend." Deanna said, staring at the phone. "And you know me. I...I don't have a whole lot of those. Besides, you know as soon as I tell Val, she'll be in hovering over everything anyway, and guess who will be sent on coffee runs." Deanna gave the phone a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes when she heard Jennifer snort on the other end. "I'll be there soon. I just have to make one stop first."

"I'll let her know when she wakes up. She'll be happy to hear that."

Deanna nodded, knowing Jennifer couldn't see her, and then hung up. After scribbling a note to Valerie and Daniel, and leaving it on the side table in the living room, she ran out the door.

A few minutes later, Deanna pulled up outside a non-descript tan house in a quiet suburban neighborhood. A stout, African-American woman was sitting on the porch, looking like she was waiting for something. She held out a cup of coffee to Deanna as she jumped out of the cab of her truck and ran up the short driveway.

"I think you were right about Sophie and Damon..."

O~O~O

Damon was pacing the stark white hallways of the hospital when Deanna walked briskly around the corner, Damon the Teddy Bear held tight in her arms. She walked right up to him.

"How's she doing?"

Damon ran his fingers through his hair, for what felt like the hundredth time. "I don't know. She's really sick. The doctors...they don't know why. They're talking about doing a spinal tap..."

Deanna winced. "A spinal tap usually means they think there's an infection of some kind."

Damon just tilted his head at her and resumed pacing. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Deanna watched him carefully for a moment, and then walked into Sophie's room. That one move made him hate her, for just a moment. She had the freedom to be in her life, as a friend and not as a creepy older man who helped out one time.

He took a deep breath to get his emotions under control, and then spread out his senses, letting Deanna's voice wash over him, letting her words become soothing noise in the background, covering up the sound of machinery working away around him.

Damon had almost gotten his scattered and panicked emotions under control, emotions only Sophie managed to bring out in him, when she spoke up behind him.

"It's mind-bending, isn't it Mr. Salvatore?"

Damon whipped around to see a short, stout African-American woman sitting in one of the ugly, uncomfortable hospital chairs, looking at him knowingly. She smiled at him, and Damon got the impression she was laughing at him. "Amazing how you didn't lose your ability to love, isn't it? And you thought Katherine was the love of your life." she clicked her tongue at him. "Not even close."

"Who the hell are you?" Damon growled, stalking towards her. Instead of intimidating her like he'd wanted to, Damon saw her eyes crinkle even more.

"I'm a friend."

"Who ever said I needed a friend?" Damon snapped.

"Well now, I never said I was _your _friend, did I?" When Damon just continued to glare at her, she sighed, as if all Damon was doing was inconveniencing her. "I'm here for the girls. _Not _for you. I don't generally make it a habit to socialize with vampires."

Damon just raised an eyebrow. "That's not something one of the girls would tell you. They don't know."

The woman shrugged. "Maybe Deanna knows."

"No. Her brother told her there's no such thing. Stupid schmuck. He doesn't know about half the things that linger in his world." Damon gave the woman a wry smile. "She believes what he says."

"True." She chuckled and tapped the side of her head. "I have a gift. It lets me know lots of things creatures like you and people like them are not likely to say out loud. Deanna's world rises and sets with Dean. It has for as long as I've known her."

"You're psychic."

She shrugged. "Among my many talents. Soul-reading and dream walking being a few of them."

"Dream walking?" Damon asked, interested now in the infuriating woman in front of him. "Like what Deanna does?"

She laughed at him again. "Deanna's not a dream walker."

"She talks to her brother..."

"Have you ever heard of broken souls, Mr. Salvatore?" she asked, leaning back in her chair and regarding him with a curious look. Damon shook his head. "I didn't think so. We'll use Deanna and Dean as an example. Do you know her story?"

"Yeah. A fire in her nursery back in '83 killed her mom and separated her from her father and brothers. She communicates with her brother through her dreams. How is that not a dream walker?"

"Because Deanna is not walking through her brother's dreams. That pipsqueak of a child can't even fathom the amount of power that would take to do something like that."

"Then what..."

"Dean and Deanna are twins. In most cases, every person starts off life with their own soul. With twins however, each one holds half of one soul. Now when a soul is broken, like say, one twin getting violently ripped from the other..." she looked pointedly at Damon, who nodded his understanding, "...the two halves will attempt to find each other, leaving an empty space within each person. Dean and Deanna will never be completely whole, not until they are reunited with one another."

"That still doesn't explain the dreams."

Her eyes twinkled. "They aren't dreams. Dean and Deanna's soul has been trying to re-connect with itself for years. They are actually visiting the astral plane of lost and wandering souls."

"You're kidding." Damon said, laughing. "The 'astral plane of lost and wandering souls'? Do people actually pay you for this crap?"

The woman's eyes flared with anger and annoyance. "They do when I'm right. Tell me, can you feel when your girl needs you the most? Can you tell when she's upset, or happy or scared, just by looking at her. Do you feel alive being around her, after a century and a half of death?" Damon stared. "Am I wrong?"

"You can't know that?"

"The thing about vampires..." the woman said, "...is that they've been around for so long, and they know so much, they let some of the tiniest details about themselves just slip through the cracks. For example, do you know what happened to your soul when you decided to become a vampire?"

When Damon didn't answer, she just continued. "See, the human soul isn't meant for the kind of stress that vampire blood puts on it. So what happens is, it shatters. Into millions of pieces. And maybe some of those pieces find their way back to one another. Maybe some of them don't. What you end up with is pieces of a soul just floating around in limbo. And those pieces, like I said before, will try to put itself back together. With a vampire, even _if _they manage to find themselves, your body can't hold a soul anymore, so it has nowhere to go."

"Make your point." Damon said, rubbing his temples in annoyance.

"My point is, it will find another body to inhabit, often sharing space with a soul already there. And those two souls will eventually, fuse together I suppose, creating one complete entity." She looked at him pointedly. "When she smiles at you, you feel like the sun is shining, even in the dark of night. When she laughs, you know that, even for a moment, your world that was flipped upside down by your change, is suddenly right again." When Damon looked away, she nudged his shoulder slightly. "You know that when she looks at you the way she does, like you are the sun in the center of her universe, that someone, somewhere along the way decided that you did something to deserve the precious gem that she is. And you know you'd kill and die to protect that gem."

Damon looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "When she was three, she just walked right up to me. Kids don't do that."

"And you just stopped questioning it. You got addicted to her warmth."

Damon was silent for a moment. "The dream I had..."

"She needed her other half." the woman said gently. "She called out to you the only way she knew how."

Damon didn't offer any more, and neither did the woman, both sitting in silence, the sounds of the hospital moving around them. Finally, Damon glanced over at her. "What happens when she dies? She's human. What happens then?"

"To you or to her?" she asked.

Damon looked down at his hands. "I don't want to lose her. Ever."

"Are you willing to take the steps to make sure that never happens?" she paused. "Is _she _willing?"

"She doesn't know." Damon whispered. "She doesn't know what I am."

"Are you going to tell her?"

Fire flared behind Damon's eyes. "Not if I can help it."

She snorted. "Uh huh. Well, good luck with that." She got up to walk away, and paused halfway down the hallway. She turned to look at him. "As I said before, I usually don't make a habit to associate with things like you. And I don't usually encourage others to associate with you either. That being said, I...I'm glad Sophie has you to protect her."

Before Damon could say anything else, she turned on her heel and briskly walked down the hallway. Damon just leaned back against the wall, letting his mind process all the new information.

He was still sitting there when Sophie's heart monitor started to flat line.

O~O~O

It was late.

Not that Damon's visits had ever been at any normal hour, but still.

Damon glanced over at Sophie's sleeping parents, making sure his compulsion was holding, before settling gently on the edge of her bed, pushing her hair off of her sticky, fever warm forehead. He inhaled, looking for her scent over the smells of the hospital and the fluids they were pumping into her system. The illness made her smell like nothing...and Damon's skin crawled with the wrongness of it.

He watched her breathe, her breaths weak and uneven. It made his chest clench to see her like that.

Still, he'd rather see her breathing, even fighting for breaths, than to see the line of heart monitor go flat again.

Even if it had only been for a few seconds, and even if her heart had started again on it's own, before the doctors and nurses could even reach for the crash cart, Damon knew he would be dreaming about that sound for years to come.

Meningitis.

The invisible enemy that had attacked his girl.

The enemy he couldn't fight for her.

Damon remembered it from his time when he was human. They'd called it brain sickness then, and he still remembered the frightened, panicked rambling of the little boy who'd lived in his village. He'd been in so much pain, and the doctors hadn't been able to do anything for him.

Damon remembered he'd died in agonizing pain and debilitating fear.

He shook his head. It wasn't 1864, he reminded himself. Doctors knew what to do now. They'd help her.

They would.

Sophie stirred slightly at his touch, arms tightening around her bear. She frowned slightly, and a single word escaped from her lips, almost like a sigh.

"Damon..."

Damon leaned down so his head was next to her's on the pillow, and began whispering softly in her ear.

"Come back to me, Soph. I don't know how to do this anymore without you."

Sophie twitched slightly, before opening her eyes to tiny slits. Damon forced a smile onto his face. "There's my girl."

"H...hurts." she choked out.

Damon reached over to get her a sip of water, and then held it for her to drink from. She winced in pain, and Damon fought the urge to flinch. Seeing her in pain physically hurt. He ignored the traitorous voice in his head that said he could take the pain away. The problem was, with every spasm of pain in her tiny body, the idea was becoming more and more attractive.

The question was, could he do that do her?

Sophie grabbed onto Damon's hand, and held on tight. "Don't let...go." she whispered, as if it took all her strength just to get those few words out. Damon knew it probably did.

He covered her tiny, delicate hand with his own. "Never. I'm right here. Not going anywhere."

She was silent for a moment, just letting Damon rub circles onto the back of her hand, before she closed her eyes against another wave of pain, and said again, "Hurts."

Damon glanced over at the pain medication that supposed to be helping her. He frowned at it, as if willing it to work better. "I know it does, Cira. It'll get better soon. The doctors are going to make it all better."

Dull, glazed green eyes looked at him under thick eyelashes, her eyes barely open. "Prom...ise?"

Damon smiled for her. "Promise.

Sophie's eyes drifted shut, and her fingers went lax around Damon's hand. Damon pressed his fingers to her pulse point, and began counting heartbeats.

Some time later, the hospital door opened quietly. Damon glanced up, prepared to compel anyone away, when Deanna walked quietly through the door. He relaxed slightly as she handed a cup of coffee to Damon and then sat down softly on one of the chairs.

She stared at the wall for a moment, before she spoke, her quiet whisper echoing softly around the room. "I heard you met Missouri."

"Crazy cat lady who spouts off crap from fortune cookies?"

Deanna's soft chuckle seemed to bounce off the walls, eradicating some of Damon's tension as it hit. "That'd be her."

Damon was silent for a beat, before he glanced over at her. "Has she told you about the astral plane of..."

"Lost and wandering souls?" Deanna finished. She flashed a crooked grin his way. "I love her to bits, but some days I think she's been sniffing paint."

Damon nodded. "You think it's true?"

Deanna shrugged. "It would make sense. I told you before I didn't think my dreams were actually dreams. Besides, Sophie doesn't like people. Or, strangers at least. Yet she adores you. And Missouri said that children tend to avoid you like the plague. She said it's an ingrained sixth sense. But Sophie..." She drifted off for a moment, before speaking again. "I think that everyone is connected in some way. Would it be so bad if she was the other half of your broken soul?"

Damon shook his head. "For me? No. No, it really wouldn't. I'm not so sure how healthy it is for her."

Deanna was silent, before she took a deep breath. "Missouri said...she said your kind has the ability to heal."

"No."

"No, you don't?"

"No, I'm not going to heal her." He sighed, and wiped a hand over his face. He hadn't decided until right then that he wasn't going to.

"Why?" Deanna asked. "If it will help her, then why..."

"Because I won't taint her like that." Damon interrupted. "I don't use the few abilities I have on her. I won't. Sophie is my...friend because she chooses to be. Not because of anything I've done to her."

"Taint? You think your magic would hurt her?"

Damon laughed at the naive child sitting next to him. "It's not magic. It's my blood. I could feed her some, and then she might heal. But if she didn't, and if she died, she'd become the kind of creature that I am. I won't do that to her."

Deanna was quiet, before she got up to walk out the door. "But she'd be alive." she whispered, before slipping out into the hallway.

"No..." Damon whispered to the quiet breathing of the three humans in the room. "No, she really wouldn't be."

O~O~O

Deanna found Damon three days later, pacing the outside courtyard behind the hospital. She leaned against a tree, and watched him walk up to one side, and then turn to make a complete circle before starting again. Deanna's first impression was that he looked like a caged animal. Eventually he glanced up at her and fixed her with predatory glare that only cemented her assumptions.

"What?"

"There's no need to get snippy." Deanna said, toying with some lint she'd found in her jacket pocket. "I just thought you might like an update on your girl."

Damon moved so fast, Deanna wasn't sure she hadn't miscalculated how far he was from her. "What happened? Is she okay?"

Deanna blinked calm, patient eyes at him and smiled. "The antibiotics are working. She can go home tomorrow. She's gonna be fine."

Damon breathed a sigh of relief before leaning back against the tree for a moment before getting up to begin pacing again. "I can't...can't do this. Not...not her."

Damon could _feel _Deanna narrow her eyes at him, and wondered vaguely when it had happened that he'd become almost as comfortable with Deanna as with Sophie. "Do what?" he heard her ask, cautious disapproval thick in her tone.

"This." Damon waved his hands around the clearing before turning to face her. "I can't lose her."

"So what? You're just going to walk away?"

Damon let his gaze flicker over her. "It'll keep her safe."

Deanna sighed in frustration and pushed away from the tree. She took a few steps before whirling back on Damon. "This wasn't your fault. Kids get sick all the time. And kids get meningitis from time to time. You can't predict these things."

"Are you going to tell me that Amy wasn't my fault?" Damon asked, looking up at her and then back down at the ground.

Deanna looked at him incredulously. "How do you go from jilted, revenge driven lover to meningitis?"

Damon glanced at the ground before looking back up at her. "I'm not a good person. I've told you that before. No matter what Sophie might think. I'm not even a person." Deanna opened her mouth to say something before he cut her off. "I thought I was going to lose her. And the only thing I could think was that I could save her. But saving her would doom her soul. I can't..._won't _do that to her. My mistakes are eventually going to catch up with me. And then what, huh? One day I won't be able to save her? One day she will die, and there isn't a damned thing I can do about that."

"So leaving is your answer? Instead of trying to protect her from your 'mistakes', you're just going to leave her defenseless and vulnerable?" She walked up so she was standing in front of him, cold fury shining in her eyes. "Everyone dies, Damon. Even you, Mr. Invincible Ninja. It's called life."

"I'm not going to die." Damon said, looking at her square and seeing her fight not to back down from his obvious challenge. "I'm pretty much the definition of forever. And if leaving will keep my mistakes from coming after her, then yes, I'm going to leave. And I'm not going to look back."

Deanna stopped him from walking away when she said, "And what about Sophie?"

"I am doing this for Sophie." Damon said, walking around her. "Since apparently my soul is connected to hers, it is my responsibility to protect that. I don't want her in my world. _You _don't want her in my world."

" And what am I supposed to tell her when she wakes up and asks where you are?" Deanna asked, running around in front of him. "Am I supposed be the one to look at her heartbroken face and tell her that her best friend...her soul _mate,_ _chose _to walk away? What then?"

He shook his head. "Tell her whatever you want. But I can't come back." he took a deep breath, gathering his courage, and then lifted Deanna out of the way as if she weighed nothing. "Honestly, I should have walked away a long time ago."

"You are selfish." Deanna whispered. With his hearing, Damon heard her as if she were yelling in his ear. "Things get hard, so you give up. She needs you too, you know. If Missouri is right about her, which she usually is, she's going to need to there by her side."

"She needs to be human more." Damon said over his shoulder. "Besides, maybe it's time you stop chasing phantom family members and focus on those who need you here. Like Sophie."

Before Deanna could say anything else, he stalked off into the night.

Every step he took from Sophie, felt like a shot through his heart. His heart that he had given up on almost a century before.

It was then, that he decided the crazy, trailer park psychic had it all wrong.

It wasn't broken souls that caused empty spaces, it was broken hearts that destroyed people.

He just hoped it wouldn't destroy her.

* * *

_Cira: Sun_

**Author's Note: I want to apologize for falling off the grid. As you can see from the dedication at the top, life sorta got in the way, and honestly, I didn't really feel like writing for a long time. This chapter was actually inspired by Trey, a toddler that I've known since he was born, and I figured that if real life couldn't have a happy ending, then Sophie damn well could. Kinda. Plus it gave me a way to lead into the chapter I wanted to do before, and didn't finish because the world decided to screw up. **

**Sorry. **

**Anyway, I'm back now, and should have chapters up and going soon. Thank you all for your patience. It really means a lot. And thanks for letting me rant a little bit. **

**Also, a guy that I teach with is Italian, and I explained Sophie and Damon to him. I asked him what he would call her, if he were a vampire, and he said he'd call her his sun. His reason for living. Cira is Italian for sun, and I thought it would be appropriate seeing as Damon is Italian. Also, I find this interesting, Salvatore is Italian for Savior. **

**Coincidence? I think not. :) **


	6. Update!

Hi guys...

So, I've recently had an issue with a person in my real life encroaching on my life online. Since he is NOT welcome in my real life, he is most certainly not welcome here. However, due to lying to and manipulating a family member during the craziness that has become my life, he has invaded my space. To be fair, the certain family member thought he was helping. He just didn't realize he wasn't helping me. Anyway, I have been forced to relocate my stories and other creations. I'm changing my pen name, and removing all my stories.

I'm sorry for those of you who were supporting me.

For those of you who left a review or added me to your story alert or favorites or anything like that, I am going to send you an e-mail with my new pen name and e-mail. In one week I will shut this portion down for good and will no longer be posting on this particular profile.

I've started a profile over on livejournal, and have that link posted on my new profile.

Again, I apologize. I hope you all can learn from my mistakes and not put personal or true information out on the internet.

You never know who might be looking to cause trouble.

Thank you again for your patience and understanding. I hope to see all of you soon in my new home.

-Merri.

I think I have fixed it so that certain person cannot get on again, but if you get e-mails or chapters from me that are rude, inconciderate, crude, crass or anything like that, I assure you it is not me, and I am working to rectify the situation as soon as possible.


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